Just when you thought the Dell Venue Pro was being relegated to being a Wikipedia page, it looks like the Windows Phone with a bottom slide keyboard is making one more swan song. We received a tip that the unlocked, unbranded Dell Venue Pro was getting updated to Windows Phone 7.8 and sure enough, it is!
It was a pleasant surprise seeing this old, no longer in production, Windows Phone getting the update. The Dell Venue Pro joined the HTC Arrive and LG Quantum as the only Windows Phone with a slide out keyboard. The Dell Venue Pro is a decent Windows Phone and it's a shame the other devices aren't getting the same level of attention.
After dusting off our Dell Venue Pro and giving the battery a little juice, we connected to Zune and received the prompts that updates were available for the Venue Pro. The update cycle first installs a handful of minor files and then launches the Windows Phone 7.8 update. All said and done, the Dell Venue Pro is running OS version 7.10.8858.136.
Once you've updated the Venue Pro, you'll need to go to the Marketplace app and install Refresh Marketplace to have access to the Windows Phone Store. This is a seperate issue and not related to Windows Phone 7.8 and for whatever reason we kept getting a download error halfway through the install though. Hopefully this is a temporary issue with the Marketplace that will be fixed soon because without Refresh Marketplace, you won't have access to the Store.
Let us know in the comments if you've had any luck not only updating the Dell Venue Pro but also installing the Refresh Marketplace app.
Thanks, Aman, for the tip!
