Review: Dell Aero
Calling
The calling features on the Dell Aero are just fine. To make a call, tap the Phone button that persists at the top of every homescreen panel. There is no Send button, so that button is the only way to access the dialer, the call logs and your list of favorite contacts.
Once you’ve placed a call, the Aero offers a simple array of features on very large, touch friendly buttons. You can mute the call, turn on the speaker, place the call on hold or open the keypad to type digits. A drop-down menu (or a press of the menu key) offers the option to place another call for a conference, as well as a call recorder option, which is always a useful tool to have on hand.
The Aero does a nice job with conference calling. It was easy to join the calls, then break them apart individually to manage both conversations. I was surprised to find that Google Voice does not work with the Dell Aero. The app shows up in the Google App Market from the phone, and seems to install just fine, but clicking on the Voice icon has no effect.
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Contacts
The address book on the Dell Aero was a let down. While most Google phones have a full Accounts menu to sync with numerous email services and social networks, the Dell Aero only has an Active Sync menu, which syncs with Microsoft Exchange. None of my Google contacts would sync. Even with Gmail’s Exchange service, my contacts did not come through.
The phone has the ability to synchronize Facebook contacts, but this did not work, at least not at first. It took the phone two days to synchronize my Facebook friend list. During this time, there was no indication that the contact list was synchronizing in the background, or even that the sync feature was working at all.
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