After taking a closer look at the glorious hardware of the Dell Venue, we now wanted to walk you through what Dell has done in the software department to make the Venue unique. Previously known as the Thunder, the Venue brings forth Dell’s Android Stage UI from the Dell Streak. This simply means that instead of smaller widgets, Dell likes full-screen widgets that take on just one function. For many, this might mean multiple home screens filled with large widgets, for better or for worse. You get about eight widgets to choose from including: Home (with weather and recently used apps), Social (for Facebook and Twitter), Favorite people, Bookmarks, Albums, Gallery, and others. Shortly after filming this video I reverted to the faster Launcher Pro Android launcher, to experience better performance and more versatility.

Then, we did some speeds tests. In Quadrant, we weren’t terribly impressed with a score of 793. Follow the benchmark we put the Venue head to head with the Nexus S, currently the fastest Android device we have access to. The Nexus S smoked the Venue in page loads speeds, but the Venue could flip into landscape more quickly.

Also, a note on the HSPA mention. The Venue supports HSPA, but in our tests, not HSPA+, which is the faster “4G-like” data speed from T-Mobile. Data speeds were around 2mbps down on a good day.