Dell Venue 7 Android Tablet

I ordered two of the new Dell Venue 7 inch tablets for my children for Christmas. I was concerned with the purchase at first due to the bad reputation of the Dell Streak. But at the same time I was very curious about the fact that Dell was using an Intel Atom processor in these units. Add to that the special price and free accidental damage coverage Dell offered me I was sold.

When the package arrived I found the device to be nicely packaged and hinted of a high end device.
The tablet has a great look and feel to it with just the right amount if heft. When compared to my Nexus 7 I will say I think it feels better and somewhat looks better. The only thing that I do not like about the build and I have been seeing this on many tablets is that the screen is raised. I would prefer to have slight lip of material around the screen. But it seems like this raised screen is something that is here to stay and I will just need to get used to it. 

The tablet has one speaker on the bottom of the device that is quite loud and clear and high volumes. Along the right side of the tablet one will find the micro SD slot as well as the micro sim slot. These slots are covered by what appears to be a very well constructed. The top of the device holds the power button as well as the headphone jack. Leaving the left side of the to house the volume rocker. The layout of the tablet is very nice. My kids and I both really like the tablets and I think that I the right choice with these devices.
I will however say that there are a few flaws with the device. The biggest is the battery. If you are using the device the battery seems fine. In fact we took a car trip lasting about three hours and the tablets ran the whole time with juice to spare. I would say about six hours of use is pretty normal. But, for some reason if I fully charge the two Dell Venue tablets and my Nexus 7 to a fully charged status and just leave them overnight. The Dell's are almost dead by the time we get up in the morning and the Nexus has used maybe 2% of the battery. So the sleep mode on the Dell's does not seem to work very well. I am still looking into this as it might just be something that I am overlooking. Another downside are the cameras. Now I am not really all that big on tablet cameras anyway but the cameras on these devices are nothing that one would want to rely on as a primary camera. But, again, I think the device is nice enough that the camera really means nothing to me. The device is very good at everything else.

I will do a follow on these devices in a few weeks after the kids have had a chance to really put the devices through the ringer. For now here is a quick break down

Pros:

1. Great packaging (really made the inexpensive tablet look expensive)

2. Great Look and feel. 

3. Micro SD slot 

4. 2 Gigs of Ram (thank you)

5. 16 Gigs of on board storage 

6. Z2560 Intel Dual Core Atom 1.6

7. WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. 

8. Cost

9. Option to buy accidental damage from the manufacture

Cons:

1. Cameras (These tablets are for my kids so the camera is fine. But, you would not want to rely on these cameras as your only option.)

2. Battery while the device is asleep.

3. Charging time. 

So far that is about it. The tablets seem great for the most part and so far we are very happy with them. 

I will follow up with more stats here soon.