Dell Streak

Out now (UK), Q3 2010 (US)
25th May 2010

Bigger than a smartphone, the upcoming Dell Streak tablet is Dell's attempt to come up with a pocket-friendly rival to the likes of the Apple iPad.

The Streak is an Android device with a large 5" touchscreen display which Dell describes as WVGA, so at least 800 x 480 pixels. The screen is a multitouch capacitive panel, which while having approximately the same resolution as the HTC Desire or Motorola Milestone does have the advantage of being bigger and easier to read.

On the back is a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and unusually for an Android device there's a front facing 0.3 megapixel camera as well. Inside, the Dell Streak supports 3.5G data and WiFi and it is worth noting that it can also make phone calls unlike the rival iPad.

The processor is a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU which should make it speedy enough, but currently we don't know how much RAM the Streak has. Internal flash memory is 2GB with a microSD slot expandable to 32GB.

At launch the Dell Streak will be running Android 2.1, due to be updated later this year to Android 2.2. This includes Google's turn-by-turn navigation, integration with major social networking sites and a mass of applications available from the Android Market, many of which are free.

This is a big device, although at the moment we don't know exactly how big. Our guess is that the Streak measures approximately 150 x 77mm, or about the same physical size as the Nokia N810. This means that the Streak should just about fit in a pocket and be usable for phone calls, and of course you can always use it with a Bluetooth headset.

The Streak will be seen in the UK from June onwards, available either through O2 or from Dell directly. It will be available in the US later in the summer, and presumably will come to other regions and carriers around the world.

It looks like an attractive device, but our main problem with it is that it's a Dell.. and that means that if you have any problems with the Streak then you'll end up suffering from Dell's often appalling customer service. As we don't know the price, we don't know if the Streak will be cheap enough to be worth the potential hassle.

Update: the specifications are confirmed as having an 800 x 480 pixel display, it measures 153 x 79 x 10mm and weighs 220 grams. Talktime is a shade under 10 hours with up to 16 days standby time. The 1GHz processor is coupled with 512MB of RAM.

Images courtesy of Dell and O2