Dell Venue tablets host pure Android OS and attractive pricing
Tablets
Hey.
I'm Xiomara Blanco for CNET and I'm here with the Dell Venue 7 and 8 tablets.
Now, this 7-inch and 8-inch pair are pretty similar and they have identical specs but they both differ when it comes to size and cameras.
Both Venue 7 and 8 tablets feature simple unremarkable design that comes in both black and red.
They're a bit thicker than comparable tablets but still managed to feel lightweight.
They're girthy
but it's not extremely noticeable.
I really like the soft grippy texture on the back that extends to the rounded edges.
It makes the devices pretty comfortable to hold for long period of time.
On the venue tablets, there's a power button, microphone pinhole and headphone jack on the top edge, single speaker on the bottom, micro SD card expansion slot on the bottom right and micro USB port and volume rocker on the top left edge.
The volume rocker is rather flesh with the edge of the tablet and doesn't protrude
enough to be easily found without looking.
The Dell Venue 7 has the front-facing VGA camera and 3-megapixel rear camera, while the Venue 8 features a 2-megapixel shooter on the front and a 5-megapixel one in the back.
Despite the slight upgrade on the 8-inch model, the cameras on both Venue tablets are underwhelming.
There are no focus options and photos come out fuzzy, grainy and dark.
Both Venue tablets display a 1280 by 800-pixel resolution, which is low in comparison
to today's top tablets but pretty standard for small budget models.
Despite this, HD video on both the tablets is decently sharp with vibrant color saturation and great viewing angle.
The Venue 7 and 8 tablets both ship with a pure version of Android 4.2.2 and although it's not the latest version of Android anymore, it is a breath of fresh air to find all a budget tablet.
Inside, the tablets house a dual core 2-gigahertz Intel Atom CPU, and
either 16 gigabytes or 32 gigabytes of internal storage.
Performance was mostly smooth with no major hiccups aside from some occasional touchscreen unresponsiveness.
Gaming performance was also smooth but both tablets took a long time to load larger games.
The 7-inch Venue starts at $150 and the 8-incher starts at $180.
Those prices are competitive and attractive for bargain shoppers and the inclusion of a pure Jelly Bean operating system is refreshing on two no-frills tablets.
For more information, check out my full review on CNET.
I'm Xiomara Blanco and this has been the Dell Venue 7 and 8 tablets.
