We have spoken about the dell streak before, but having spent more time with it, we thought we would revisit it once more. For those of you who are a bit out of touch, the Streak is Dell’s smartphone/mini-tablet recently released into the wild.
It runs Android 1.6, with an update to 2.2 on the cards soon. The operating system is proving popular with the masses, partly because of its ease of use and partly because of the amount of applications currently available for it. Oh, and a few games too, most of them free.
The dell streak is big for a phone and small for a tablet, hence the smartphone/mini-tablet moniker used above. It has a high resolution 5-inch screen, and certainly wants to be a tablet. However, it’s more appropriate to call it a mini-tablet, as Dell’s consumer managing director for South Asia Andreas Diantoro says.
“One of the advantages of the Dell Streak is its perfect size,” said Andreas. “The Streak is large enough to serve as a tablet, yet small enough to fit into the pocket of your jeans,” he added.
Dell of course would say that, but the proof is in the pudding. It does indeed fit into your pants pocket, but it feels a little bulky there. I certainly wouldn’t call it comfortable. That said, it would be hard for someone to steal it without you noticing.
While Dell’s core expertise clearly lies in computers, the company has been pretty serious about the mobile device market. Besides the Streak, Dell released an Android-based smart phone called Dell Aero and a Windows Phone 7-based smart phone, the Dell Venue Pro.
What are the main selling points of the Streak? To start, it’s a 3G smart phone, with HSDPA data capability, giving us up to 7.2 Mbps throughput. The processor is easily up to the task being a Qualcomm Snapdragon qs8250 running at 1 GHz.
The 5-inch TFT screen runs at 800 x 480 resolution. It’s a multi-touch screen, which is great for watching YouTube videos, especially when horizontal. It’s also a GPS device, which is where the large screen comes in handy. One useful innovation is the use of special glass called “Gorilla Glass” for the screen, which apparently prevents scratches. Time will tell how effective it is, but it has a nice finish.
The phone itself is quite straightforward. There are three buttons for home, menu and a return to the previous screen. The buttons also control the volume, powers the device on, and switchesit to camera mode. The camera itself is pretty good. It’s capable of 5 megapixels, has an LED flash and a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing.
Battery life is good, the screen is bright, turn-by-turn navigation is excellent, and if you have an HSDPA contract, you’re laughing. All in all, the Dell Streak is a great phone done well. Once it finds its niche it’ll sell extremely well.
We have know for a while that there were a few Dell phones scheduled for a 2010 release. We saw previews of what where Lightning, Thunder, Flash, Smoke and Streak, and all looked pretty good. Time has moved on, and so have the original models that we previewed earlier in the year.
The Lightning, is now released under the name Venue Pro, Thunder we have here, Flash is an Android phone we don’t have much news for. Smoke is another Android phone in Froyo guise and Streak is the tablet/smartphone hybrid launched earlier this year.
The Dell Thunder looks also to have been renamed, to the Dell Venue. It’s currently with the FCC awaiting approval, but we got a look at the prototype model and we’re here to share the views.
On the surface the Thunder looks like the other Dell phone in the news, the Venue Pro. The main differences are that is has ditched the slider for a longer body, and uses Android instead of Windows 7. Other than that, it looks much the same phone.
Bear in mind, these were engineering test models and they will probably change quite a bit before release. Anyway, to the phone. The Dell Thunder is a sleek looking device. The large LCD screen covers most of the front body, with just three recessed buttons on the bottom.
The release version is due to have an OLED panel, but the one we saw was LCD. Even though there was no evidence to support that, it looked too dim for OLED. The screen size is just right. Big enough for everything to be crystal clear and easily readable, while not being too big that it will make an uncomfortable bulge in your pocket a la Streak.
The software we saw was Android 1.6, which was again, a pre-release test version. It worked well, all the applications included booted and worked as advertised, so no problems there, even in pre-release. We had trouble getting the camera to work, but once working, was quick to adjust and took pretty decent pictures. We didn’t try video though, as we didn’t have time, but there’s no reason to doubt video quality would be any worse than stills.
Performance wise, the test phone was fast. The Dell phone has a 1GHz Snapdragon QSM8250 CPU with Qualcomm Adreno graphics to drive it. These specs are much like the Nexus One, which seems to handle most things. There was a bit of lag when using the apps drawer, but was snappy everywhere else.
The GPS was disabled, as was FM radio and a few other features, this was an early model after all. It’s difficult to make critical judgments about pre-release hardware, so we won’t.
From what we saw, the Dell Thunder, Venue, or whatever the final name will be, is a decent phone, with decent specs. It looks like it will fill a middle ground rather than set the world on fire, but will be a solid phone nonetheless.
The dell streak was launched in June across the world, and has been relatively quiet since. As is our habit, we review new gadgets when they first appear, then revisit them a few months after to see how they fare. This give the manufacturer a chance to get a handle on bugs, issues and anything else that slipped through quality assurance before launch.
The big news at the moment is the new Dell phone, the Venue Pro. This new handset is set to compete with BlackBerry, and only time will tell how that one will go. However, the new phone looks to include lessons learned throughout the past couple of years, and seems a step up from previous releases. But we aren’t here to talk about that Dell phone, we’re here to revisit the dell streak.
The Streak is an awkward beast. It’s like the tall guy you knew at school, too big for class, too big for you, but really good at soccer or long jump. He seems awkward in some situations, but perfectly suited to others. That was my initial impression of the Streak, and it hasn’t changed much since.
The unusual form factor is what gives me pause. It’s a 10 millimeter thick lump of plastic, with a 5-inch LCD screen that looks not unlike a Sony PSP. This Dell phone makes a bold statement in a pocket, as it barely fit into my jeans. There is a nice lump in the front pocket that illicit a glance or two as I walk down the street.
It fits nicely in the hand and doesn’t weigh as much as the earth, despite how it looks. It has a smooth, reassuring feel to it. The Gorilla Glass front is clear and thankfully scratch resistant. There are four buttons along the side, a front-facing VGA camera and a headphone jack. There is also a USB port, which is nice.
The big battery is a 1530nmh, out of which we managed a little over ten hours continuous operation. Compare that to barely six for the HTC Desire, and things are looking good.
Performance-wise, the interface is fast and intuitive. The newest Dell phone firmware has speeded things up considerably and now we can flip and slide to our hearts content. Media is handled well, with our test MP4 clip playing seamlessly on the large screen. Detail was good, sound was great and it didn’t kill the battery.
Call quality is also good, sound attenuation is effective, and it seemed to clear out a lot of background noise in our tests. The dull Dell dialer interface is still there though, but doesn’t detract much from the overall feel of the device.
While marketed as a tablet, the Streak is a smartphone in our eyes. Yes it might reflect the fact that society is getting bigger, but it’s capable, colorful and can handle everything you throw at it. The camera is good, call quality is good, applications are good, it’s just, well, good.
The Venue Pro is the new Dell phone that uses Windows 7, and is coming to a store near you. It has had a lot of media coverage over the past week or so as it’s Dell’s new flagship phone. Despite that, it actually seems to be quite good. Considering the state of the previous Dell Aero and the Android phone they produced for AT&T, it’s going to have to be.
The Venue Pro smacks of being primarily a phone for business users. It’s solid, weighty and has a reassuring bulk about it that hints at longevity. It has a raised area on the back, and tough, scratch resistant glass on for the screen. It’s the same material Dell uses on the Streak, so we know it works quite well.
The Venue Pro just feels more like a corporate mobile than a sleek, shiny consumer unit. There isn’t anything in there especially for businesses users, not as far as we could see, but much like the Blackberry, even though consumers can still use them, they lack the appeal of the iPhone or others.
That said, the new Dell phone packs quite a punch, whoever uses it. There’s a large 4.1” screen, which is ideal for the Windows 7 interface. While the screen size does make the phone a little bulky, it’s much easier to see what’s going on, and to use the applications effectively. It’s a little larger than an HTC or LG Optimus, but not so much that it becomes unwieldy.
The phone comes with a QWERTY keyboard, with rounded raised buttons. Even pudgy fingers like mine could tap out a text message in a few seconds, and had no problem navigation my way round. Dell phones are relatively new, so we don’t know how hardy these guys are, but the solid construction gives us a feeling of confidence. Let’s just hope the electronics are up to the job.
The Venue Pro is a slider phone, which keeps the orientation vertical, which neatly circumvents the Windows 7 screen issue where it prefers portrait mode to landscape.
Hardware wise, it has a 1-GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and 16GB of storage. This seems pretty standard for Windows phones right now, and so far has been more than capable of running the OS and applications.
With the phone comes some Dell phone goodies, such as a year’s subscription to Pageonce Personal Finance. If you get it through T-Mobile you also get Netflix, T-Mobile TV, Slacker, Telenav and other apps. To get the phone through T-Mobile you’re going to have to order direct from Dell, as these aren’t going retail. No T-Mobile store will have these in stock, so it’s mail order only I’m afraid.
From our brief test, the Venue Pro looks like a significant step forward for Dell phones. It’s slick, quick, and seems perfectly capable of handling anything you can throw at it.
TIN BOX MAKER Dell has done a deal with Microsoft to move to its own mobile phones running Windows Phone 7.
Dell has 25,000 employees who until recently were using Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberrys, but it plans to move them to the Windows Phone 7-powered Dell Venue Pro.
According to the Wall Street Journal Dell is in discussions with T-Mobile USA, the carrier for the Venue Pro, for buying voice and data in bulk.
Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden said that the reason for the switch is because the company competes with RIM.
Dell claims that the switch will save money and is part of a larger effort for the PC maker to convince its business customers to switch to the company’s smartphones.
But it is not all going the Vole’s way. Dell will also offer employees phones running Google’s Android, which is already used in some of the company’s devices.
Still, Microsoft will be pleased at seeing so many phones switched to its mobile operating system at one go.
RIM suffered a massive blowas one of the world’s biggest computer manufacturers, Dell, has just shifted 25,000 of its employees off BlackBerry phones over to Dell handsets sporting the new Windows Phone 7 mobile OS platform.
Venue Pro over BlackBerry
Dell will shift 25,000 employees – about one quarter of the people it employs – onto its own Venue Pro handset powered by Windows Phone 7, and expects the move will slash the company’s mobile communications costs by 25 per cent. Not only is this good from a cost-savings perspective, it will also give Dell staffers some insight on their own products’ strengths and shortcomings since they will be eating their own ‘dog food’, so to speak.
As for those 25,000 used BlackBerry’s? Dell CFO Brian Gladden says that: ‘We actually had a conversation last night around creating a site on eBay where we can actually sell these BlackBerry devices.’ Ouch.
Cracking at the seams or just strategy?
This is definitely a major blow for BlackBerry to lose that manycustomers at once,particularly in such a high profile organisation, but it may also just be a strategic play to boost Dell’s smartphone ambitions. In this respect, it may be premature to say RIM is losing its touch with its core customer base – the enterprise space – but this does not bode well for the company.
Major Phone 7 boost
Furthermore this is a massive boostfor the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS platform. Sure, 25,000 subscribers is a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the tens of millions of Android handsets shipping and the 14 million iPhones shipped in this last quarter, but it’s that particular customer basethat matters. Having that many concentrated users sharing professional networks could be a massive seed and a catalyst for growth in the enterprise space.
And for Microsoft and the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS platform, any growth potential is good, especially with the all-out assault Apple and Google have launched.
Kolkata: Dell’s 3G phones XCD28 & XCD35 hit the Indian market! Android phones have already made to the India market, but Dell has recently launched its own Android-based smartphones — XCD28 and XCD35.
The features that will enamor the 3G phone are 3.2 megapixel digital camera, a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display, high speed connectivity, WiFi and Bluetooth, FM Radio and access to Microsoft Email Exchange through Active sync, 200MB of internal memory that can be expanded upto 16GB using Micro SD memory cards.
Dell XCD28 also offers full internet browsing, a media player supporting multiple formats for videos, music and photos and features such as location awareness.
The 25 years old company that is spreading its holds tp capture the internet computing world into more accessible ways like cell phones at an affordable cost are looking to offer technology solutions to a much larger audience through their new launches.
And to add to all the delight of the tech savvy customers, Dell XCD28 is priced at Rs 10,990 while Dell XCD35 will sell for Rs 16,990 only.
Relevant sources confirmed that Dell, XCD28 will be immediately available in the market while XCD35 will be available by December 2010.
Should you take the plunge now, or wait for an updated Android?
Is it a phone? Is it a slate? Dell’s distinctive web communications gadget confuses and delights in equal measure.
It may weigh only 220g, be dressed in sober black and have attracted a fraction of the attention with the Apple iPad, but Dell is pinning a lot of hopes around the humble-looking Streak. And it undeniably has a charm all its own.
Designed to appeal
A 5in display dominates, having a thick black bezel on either side. Should you were feeling unkind you may call it an overgrown phone, particularly when held vertically, but most of the time you’ll be holding the Streak in landscape mode, and in that orientation it looks fairly neat.
Unlike the iPad’s chic minimalism, Dell dots a number of buttons around the Streak’s edge. The Home, Menu and Back buttons sit towards the right of the display. Menu is context-sensitive, showing commands such as Wallpaper when on the home screen and Voice Dial when within the phone app.
At the top (the right-hand side should you use it as a phone) you will discover the quantity buttons, the power switch, a 3.5mm audio socket and also the camera button. The bottom is home to a proprietary connector, which is how you link up with your PC and recharge the device.
The software
As has been nicely advertised, Google Android powers the Streak. But disappointingly, it is Android 1.6 – not 2.1 or the newer 2.2 (FroYo).
That indicates you lose out on support for native multitouch, Adobe Flash and over-the-air Exchange synchronisation.
Which you miss probably the most will depend on how you use the Streak. The absence of Flash indicates you can’t watch videos, or many on the web games for that matter.
The lack of native multitouch is not fairly as poor because it sounds: the majority of the other key apps, notably the web browser, do help it. One application that does not, however, is Google Maps, and that’s a bigger limitation. No pinch to zoom means you need to double-tap the show or use the small onscreen buttons.
To counter the lack of Exchange support, Dell bundles a 30-day trial of an app called TouchDown. It works well, but will price you extra if you would like the full version. Dell assures us it will release an over-the-air update for the Streak to Android 2.2. That sounds great, but as owners of the HTC Hero and other Android-based phones know, such promises could be broken.
This aside, we’re impressed by the work Dell has put in to create Android scale to the Streak’s 800 x 480 show. The neat house display has a search bar and six onscreen shortcuts to key apps such as contacts, messaging and also the web browser. Press the arrow in the top and also the installed apps spring into view.
The majority of these are predictable, but we’re just a little disappointed in the lack of a proper workplace suite. All you can do is view files with the QuickOffice viewer; fantastic for PDFs, annoying for everything else.
Then again, that’s when the strength with the Android Market comes into play. Most apps adapted well towards the larger display, and you can download the third-party Workplace app DataViz Documents To Go for close to $20.
Dell also includes the Amazon Kindle app, which suggests it considers the Streak suitable for eBook reading. While it is never as comfortable to read a book on a backlit device as it is on a dedicated reader, it feels surprisingly natural to read a page around the Streak’s 5in screen.
Strengths and weaknesses
We have mixed feelings about the Streak’s onscreen keyboard. 1 nice touch is the separate quantity pad if you’re typing in landscape mode, but it’s fiddly to enter text at speed. We found mistakes kept creeping in, and the auto-correction is no match for that found on HTC’s Android handsets or the iPhone 4.
Consequently, we wouldn’t want to use the Streak as an email gadget, and if you make frequent calls nor will you want it to be your main phone. Although you don’t look ridiculous with the Streak clamped to your ear, you do not appear entirely sane both. You can use the hands-free set to make and take calls, and call high quality is fine, however the biggest hurdle will be the size. You are able to squeeze the Streak into a jeans pocket, but we suspect most individuals will prefer to keep it in their bag.
Entertainment on-the-go is great
Where the dell streak excels is as an entertainment device. Video appears fantastic around the 5in screen, and YouTube clips had been beautifully smooth thanks towards the 1GHz processor. There’s 16GB of storage as standard, but this comes in the form of a microSD card instead of built-in flash memory. The only room for expansion is to upgrade to a 32GB card.
The hands-free set consists of a pair of high-quality earphones that slip into your ear canal and block out most background noise. There’s no volume control, but a pause button allows you to accept incoming calls.
The 5-megapixel digital camera on the rear takes decent photos in bright conditions. Under much more subdued lighting, twin LEDs help to illuminate your subjects, however the effect does not come close to a correct flash. We were also a bit disappointed by the video digital camera. It only shoots at 640 x 480 and at 20fps.
Searching bliss
The Streak excels when browsing web sites. As long as your connection is strong, even websites that aren’t optimised for mobile browsers load rapidly. And more than Wi-Fi it’s even quicker, with the BBC website displaying in fewer than 11 seconds. It completed the SunSpider benchmark in a extremely respectable average of 25 seconds, although a 91/100 score within the Acid3 standards check is acceptable. But it is hamstrung by the lack of Flash help.
To fully take advantage with the Streak’s GPS capabilities, you need to purchase Dell’s car docking kit, which we expect to retail close to $115.
We took the Streak out onto the streets with out the kit and, as ever, were impressed by Google Maps Navigation. The visual directions are clear and its mapping solid, but in some methods it isn’t ideally set up for the 5in display. Yes, the street mapping is big, but if and when you do require to press a button you will find they’re uncomfortably small.
The other problem will be the built-in speakers. To create certain you can hear what the synthesised voice just said more than the background hum of the road, the volume must be set at three-quarters or above. And also the speakers start to distort at that quantity. It is fine the majority of the time, but if the street name is not familiar then it is easy to mishear.
Battery life
The Streak’s generous 1530mAh battery retained 60% of its charge after our 24-hour test (this includes polling for e-mail every 30 minutes, playing back audio for an hour, making a 30-minute telephone call, and hooking up towards the internet for an hour using the screen on). That puts it on a par using the iPhone 4 – pretty great for a device having a screen this big – but heavy users will require to recharge it every day.
You can do so either by way of the supplied USB adapter plug or by plugging it into your pc. Should you do the latter, you are able to also synchronise your Outlook contacts and calendar by way of Dell PC Suite (which you load direct from the Streak)! It is not probably the most polished software program in the world, with some suspect English to negotiate throughout setup, but it works.
Conclusion
We cannot suggest the dell streak yet. For it to become the natural option for browsing the internet, it must support Flash. And for this, it wants its promised Android update.
You will find other problems with the Streak too.
It is just too large for most pockets, so you will miss the always-there convenience of a phone. On the other hand, its screen isn’t as big or as stunning as that of the Apple iPad, which rules out the much-heralded rebirth of digital magazines.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like. Thinking about its display size, battery life is good. Dell makes the the majority of Google Android, having a slick user interface married to thousands of apps, many of which are totally free. And the hardware is rather attractive as well.
The dell streak comes out on October 1, for $649 outright, or $0 upfront on a $59 per month plan from Optus.
On May 25, Dell announced that the dell streak tablet device would be available to UK customers in early June. It will be available to US customers later this summer.
The dell streak is a hybrid device that lives in the space between a smartphone and other larger tablets or netbooks that you might be using right now.
Dell designed it to provide a wide range of users flexibility to do what they need with a mobile device.
As Joel pointed out back in January Michael Dell showed a glimpse of the Dell Android tablet then known as the Dell Mini 5. The device launched this past week on O2 in the UK and is officially known as the dell streak. The folks at Engadget picked one up and posted a full review of this 5 inch display tablet. The dell streak should be launching here in the US in July for around $500. With my new Sprint HTC EVO 4G sporting similar specs and a 4.3 inch display for $200, I have to wonder if the slightly larger display will appeal to many looking for an iPad alternative.
Key features and specifications of the Dell Streak included:
Google Android 1.6 OS (should get an upgrade to 2.2 this year)
5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and VGA front facing camera
3G/WiFi/Bluetooth radios
HDMI out
2GB internal storage and microSD expandable memory card support for up to 32 GB
Most all of the specs of the dell streak are the same as the HTC EVO 4G (processor, display resolution, HDMI out, microSD card) with the display size, camera resolution, and current operating system being the major differences. Personally, the higher resolution camera and 2.1 Google Android operating system are more compelling to me than the slightly larger display. The display size makes this much less like a smartphone while the EVO 4G is still very pocketable. Engadget shows Google Maps Navigation on the Dell Streak compared to the Nexus One, but I would like to see how the HTC EVO 4G looks instead.
The Dell Streak will be an interesting tablet device, but I personally think making the jump to a tablet over a smartphone requires a display size of at least 7 inches. Is there enough appeal in the Dell Streak over Google Android smartphones?
