Let’s get one thing straight. The Dell Streak, due to be obtainable from O2 in the U.K. tomorrow and likely from AT&T in the U.S. sometime next month, is not an Android tablet PC, despite the company’s self-declaration of same, and is not a competitor to the iPad or an iPad killer. I got my hands on a pre-production Streak prototype, and Dell’s more predictable Aero Android phone, for around a half-hour yesterday. And now that I’ve held it and played with it, I can tell you the Streak is not a tablet, it’s just a really large handset. A nice device, but still a cellphone. Why isn’t the Streak a tablet? As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once described his legal definition of pornography, I know it when I see it. Streak has a 5-inch 800 x 480 pixel screen, and that’s not large enough to be defined as a “PC,” tablet or otherwise. It walks like an Android mobile phone and it talks, literally, like an Android cellphone. Ergo, it’s a handset.
Streak Features & Design:The Dell Streak is intended to be held in portrait mode – when you hold the Streak in its OS default landscape view, like a tablet, the now-familiar Android Home, Menu and Back buttons are stacked vertically on the side, unlike a tablet. When held in landscape, the Streak’s volume and on/off switch are on the top left perimeter, requiring an untablet-like reach-around to get to these oft-used controls.
Phone Functionality:Don’t get me wrong: I actually liked the Streak – as a handset. Its 5-inch screen makes a great viewfinder for the 5 MP camera and camcorder, if it has one, and is the perfect compromise size for mobile Web surfing. Its touch scroll is nearly iPhone smooth and offers multi-touch for pinch-and-zooming.
Battery Life:Streak’s got a hefty 1530 mAh battery, which likely accounts for most of its weight, but we’ll have to wait for a more formal review to determine real life battery life.
Streak Features & Design:The Dell Streak is intended to be held in portrait mode – when you hold the Streak in its OS default landscape view, like a tablet, the now-familiar Android Home, Menu and Back buttons are stacked vertically on the side, unlike a tablet. When held in landscape, the Streak’s volume and on/off switch are on the top left perimeter, requiring an untablet-like reach-around to get to these oft-used controls.
Phone Functionality:Don’t get me wrong: I actually liked the Streak – as a cellphone. Its 5-inch screen makes a great viewfinder for the 5 MP camera and camcorder, if it has one, and is the perfect compromise size for mobile Web surfing. Its touch scroll is nearly iPhone smooth and offers multi-touch for pinch-and-zooming.
Battery Life:Streak’s got a hefty 1530 mAh battery, which likely accounts for most of its weight, but we’ll have to wait for a more formal review to determine real life battery life.
Popularity: 5%
