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It appears that shadowing Apple and the iPhone, Dell has for some unbelievable reason manacled the new Dell Streak firmly to AT&T as if you were under the impression you could purchase the Dell Streak off contract for $549 and unlock it to use on another carrier, you are mistaken.

Apparently Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca posted a tweet to clear up any confusion over the off contract $549 device by tweeting…” Lots of folks are asking about the $549 version of #dellstreak. To be clear, it will not be unlocked. It is SIM-locked to AT&T.”

So there you have it, another smartphone shackled to AT&T’s network much like the iPhone 4, but who knows maybe in the not too distant future the Android community may come up with an Android jailbreak for the Dell Streak to set it free from the AT&T stranglehold.

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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.

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Previously known as Dell Mini 5, Dell’s first Android smartphone, now called Dell Streak, has just been officially announced in the UK – where O2 will exclusively offer it via its own channels, as well as via Carphone Warehouse. The new tablet will be available starting early June – not long after Apple will launch the iPad in the UK. According to Carphone Warehouse, the Dell Streak runs Android 1.6 – but don’t worry, Dell is officially promising an Android 2.2 update for latter this year. The tablet’s other official features include: 5 inch WVGA multi-touch display, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Google Maps, Twitter and Facebook integration, 5MP autofocus camera, 2GB of internal memory, and MicroSD card support.

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Apparently, Dell has had some things cooking in the proverbial oven, because they’ve all spilled out tonight. While the majority of them feature a different mobile Operating System, the Lightning features the upcoming Windows Phone 7. And, from the looks of it, even if Windows Phone 7 isn’t officially available, Dell isn’t messing around.

We’re sure that you’re staring at these renders in shock and awe, just as we are, because yes, these are remarkably good looking devices. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a portrait slider actually look worth it, and Dell has indeed made it worth it. Because, under these gorgeous aesthetic sharp angles, we’ve got some impressive specs: 1GHz Snapdragon processor, AT&T and T-Mobile USA 3G bands, a 5MP autofocus camera on the back, and a 4.1-inch WVGA OLED display.

Dell Lightning Specifications