Dell announces official availability of Android-powered Venue smartphone in Singapore

Do you remember the new Dell-related article we posted three months ago? You know, the one where Dell was showing off its Dell Streak 7 and Venue at a media lunch shortly after Chinese New Year and proclaiming that both smartphones will be making their way down to Singapore "in the next couple of months"? Well, it turns out that the staff at Dell were apparently not very good with dates, as it has already been three months since that incident, and there is still no sight of the elusive Streak 7 tablet and Venue smartphone that should have already arrived based on Dells estimations.

However, patience is always a virtue, and it seems that today is the day where three long months of waiting where finally paid off, for Dell has just confirmed in a press release that the Venue is still on track for a local launch, and will be available for sale to consumers from May 14.

According to Dell, the Venue will sport a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that utilizes the tough Gorilla Glass to protect against scratches, along with an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera, while processing power is supplied by Qualcomms 1GHz Snapdragon system-on-a-chip (SoC).On the software side, Dell has confirmed that the Venue will be preloaded with the same proprietary Stage user interfacethat was present on its five-inch Streak tablet, along with version 2.2 (aka Froyo) of the Android operating system.

Unfortunately, the company had conveniently neglected to mention whether it will be providing the smartphone with an upgrade path to Gingerbread or not. As such, users who are keen on replacing their current smartphones with Venue will have to decide whether they are willing to live with this little uncertainty until Dell decides to issue an official statement pertaining to this issue. However, if the thought of getting a smartphone that may potentially have no upgrade path to Gingerbread is of little concern to you, the Venue can be yours at the recommended retail price of S$738 when it is officially available for sale on May 14.And yes, it can be purchased with carrier subsidies from all three local telcos.