Dell Streak – First Android Tablet Worth Taking Sincerely

Pros

The Dell Streak comes with an unparalleled blend of screen size, design quality and processor power. In addition to all this, by offering support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G, the system hits all the sweet spots one could ask for. Though, the camcorder, the photo and the calling capabilities of the system smears the limits between phone and tablet.

Cons

The Dell Streak suffers from poor battery, awkward touch-screen keyboard and below average music quality. Also the position of the camera for the system tends to cloud the video and photos.

Introduction

Everyone is eager to see a grave rival for the Apple’s iPad tablet computer, and Dell’s Streak is the strongest challenger we’ve seen up to now. Though, the pocket-friendly design of and phone capabilities of the system made us wonder, whether it shouldn’t really be judged as a smartphone or not. No matter how you define the Streak, the design quality and feature list for Streak is too enticing to overlook, though the $500 (reported) price tag of the system is a tad hard to swallow.

Design

The most noticeable aspect of Dell Streak is its design. the hardware capabilities, including the camera, touchscreen and the expandable memories of the system are nothing you haven’t seen before and the same is the case with its Google’s Android operating system’s capabilities.

The first thing that anyone who will pick up the Streak for the first time will notice is the size of the Streak. Measuring 3.2 inches tall by 0.35 inch thick by 6 inches wide, the Streak is equal to a pocket Moleskine notebook, in terms of size. The system is almost third the size of the Apple’s iPad tablet, but breaks the standards for smartphone dimensions.

The size of the system charts a completely new territory in the market, and the potential buyers should keep in mind that it neither is a replacement for your laptop, nor is for your laptop. Neglecting the size issue, the Streak really has a decent design quality, which justifies the $500 price range of the system. The 5 inch capacitive touch screen of the system is swathed in an apparently unyielding Gorilla Glass, which is developed by Corning, though the pointed edges of at the left and right uses a slightly more conventional scratch-resistant plastic. These edges also conceal three soft keys (menu, back and home), microphone, a front-facing VGA-resolution camera and an earpiece.

The system has a 5 megapixel autofocus camera on its flip side along with an integrated LED flash. The position of the camera is a tad awkward, and every now and then your left hand will obscure the lens, when you hold the Streak in its prearranged landscape orientation.

The rear end of the system has a small speaker grille positioned near the edge of a huge battery cover. Along with a detachable, rechargeable battery, the battery compartment of the phone also offers access to the built-in 16GB microSD memory card and a SIM card slot. You can easily swap both the microSD cards and SIM, but for security reasons as you open the battery compartment the Streak will automatically shut down.

The top edge of the Streak hosts thin buttons for power, camera mode and volume, in addition to a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The only problem we had with these buttons is that the camera and power buttons for the system are almost identical in shape and are placed so closely that it’s easy to confuse them.

Lastly, the base of the Streak offers a 30-pin connection, which is identical to iPad, but is not compatible.

System Configuration

Price: $299.99
Manufacturer: Dell
Part Number: DellStreak
Dimensions (H x D x W): 3.2 by 0.35 by 6 inches
Weight: 220 grams
Operating System Provided: Android OS 1.6

Processor: Qualcomm ARM 1 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Display Type: 5 in TFT active matrix
Audio: MP$, MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC, WMA, Midi, AMR and Wav Sound Compatibility
Input device type: Touch-screen & Camera
Features: WebKit Android internet Browser, 5.0 MP rear-facing camera having autofocus, VGA front-facing camera and 5 inch WVGA touch display with Gorilla Glass
Expansion Slot(s): microSD card
Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Battery: 1530mAh

Performance

There is a lot to love about Dell Streak, as far as the performance is concerned. The Streak has capacitive touchscreen, which offers a swift reaction time, in comparison to the awkward resistive screens we’ve seen in the Archos tablets and Android e-readers. The 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor of the Streak also performs decently with no issues in handling almost every task it was subjected to. The website loading time take by Streak was neck to neck with what taken by Apple. One major impressive point about the performance of the Streak was its call quality, which really was awesome here. Even the call quality and photo quality delivered here was impressive. The only downside we found here was the touchscreen keypad of Streak, and although it was decently fast, but was really a pain to type on. Even the audio quality for the system was not as good as we would have wanted.

Now finally the battery life of Dell Streak, so though there is no claims made by Dell regarding the battery life of the system we’ve heard that that the system offers nearly  9 hours of battery life.

Support

There is no support information available for Dell Streak, although we will update this section as soon as we get any information.

Word from the Experts

The Dell Streak is the very first Android tablet, that’s worth taking gravely, though the size of the system puts it right in the middle of SmartPhones and tablets.