[Review] Dell Streak: Fills the space between a cell-phone and a tablet PC

FULL REVIEW

Dell’s latest foray into portable computing space - the Dell Streak, is a fairly impressive combination of a cell-phone and a tablet. The Dell Streak is a pretty mighty beast for its size, with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, about 1.6 GB of internal storage, 5MP camera and built-in Wi-Fi. The screen is encased in scratch resistant Gorilla Glass which means the device can be carried around in your pant pocket without having to worry too much about messing up the screen.

All that power in a relatively small space comes at a cost of increased weight and Streak weighs in at approximately 200 grams. The devices weight does not hinder during most practical uses; however, you do start to feel the burden during prolonged sessions. There are three touch sensitive buttons with ‘back’, ‘home’ and ‘options’ functions at the bottom (if held vertically) of the device, with vibration feedback. Then there are mechanical buttons for power, volume control and camera.

All this hardware is orchestrated by a modified version of Google Android v1.6 OS, with an upgrade to version 2.2 promised later in the year. The UI is elegantly and efficiently designed, ensuring that the most common commands and function are available with no more than a couple of screen taps. Overall functioning of the device is quick and smooth and the system was stable for the duration of this review. 

Now, let’s take a quick look at some of the main features of Dell Streak.

Getting Started

If you are going to use Dell Streak as a phone then you first need to remove the batteries from the back and slide in the SIM card. This is also where one can slot in a microSD card, which means that switching between SD cards is going to be a pain. One the card(s) are in place and the batteries back in place, the device is ready to boot up. 

We found the Dell Streak to be a little slow to boot-up, taking well over a minute and a half to get to the home screen. There is a neat little ‘Getting Started’ walkthrough that quickly and efficiently shows the ropes of using the device. When on the home screens, the device can only be used by holding it horizontally. On the other hand, most of the pre-installed apps adjust to the phone’s orientation. 

Touched by Dell

Dell’s UI tweaks to Android appear to be heavily influenced by Windows. The top left-hand corner of the screen has the functional equivalent of the ‘Start’ button, giving access to all the installed apps. Tapping the button next to it brings up a screen that shows a list of running application, along with an option to jump to any of the five virtual home screens. Following that is a notification area which provides alerts on things like new messages or e-mails. The area next to it displays information on connected networks and battery status. Tapping in this area brings up a screen with shortcuts to network and other settings. Lastly, the right-hand corner of the screen gives date and time information.

Build

Dell Streak’s build quality is quite impressive, as it should be considering the cost of the device. The scratch resistant glass is quite effectively and finger smudges come off easily. On the flip-side, the area next to the screen appears to be encased in regular plastic as it picked up scratches during our usage. The battery cover slips on and off easily and it is made of metal giving a nice robust feel.

Screen

The touch sensitivity of the screen is responsive and its overall performance is comparable to the best in its category. The display quality is great and does pretty well even when using it directly under a mid-afternoon sun.

Camera

The Streak's 5 megapixel camera is nothing worth writing home about and camera enthusiasts may be sorely disappointed by its performance. The camera can capture images in high resolution, but its sensors do not pick up finer details in the scenery. The phones 4X digital zoom capabilities further compromises the image quality. The camera system is slow at capturing images, even more so at higher resolution. All in all, we feel that the phone’s camera is let down by its weak sensor. 

Browser

We do not have any major complaints with the built-in browser, apart from the fact that it is not capable of playing embedded flash videos. Websites designed for smaller screen work perfectly and other sites scale properly to the screen size, as long as the device is held sideways. Websites that are not specifically designed for mobile devices are almost unreadable when the device is held vertically. Besides this, the browser loads websites quickly and most common functions are accessible with little pain.

Music

The built-in music player is minimalistic with functions like playlists, repeat and shuffle. Speakers are quite weak with virtually zero low-frequency reproduction, but this can be remedied by using the bundled earpiece. There is also an option to jump to Amazon’s MP3 store if you are interested in downloading music legally.

Data Transfer

We connected the device to a PC running Windows 7 using the bundled USB cable. To setup synchronization we had to download Dell PC Suite from the company website. The software is bare-bones and only syncs contacts, calendar, tasks and notes. For all other purposes, the phone’s built-in storage is detected as a removable storage device by Windows, and transferring music was a matter of drag-and-drop. It would have been nice to see the PC Suite handle all data transfer, including stuff like music, videos and pictures. When compared with the software built into the phone, this PC software is pretty lame and could use a lot of improvement.

On another sad note, we could not get the built-in synchronization with Google server to work. This was unfortunate as we think this might make syncing less painful.

Final word

Overall, Dell Streak is a pretty good device and we would recommend it to anyone who has the mad cash to buy one and does not mind walking around with an awkward bulge in their pocket. For now, this appears to be the device of choice for those who are looking for something that is more powerful than a smart-phone, but less bulkier than a tablet. Google services like Gmail, GTalk and Maps work seamlessly and effortlessly. With a sizable 5-inch 480 x 800 pixel resolution screen and a data plan, it would work well as a navigation device when driving. Access to the Marketplace, which now has an Indian store, opens up a whole bevy of options to customise the phone. We haven't had much time to test the battery life thoroughly, but when watching DivX movies, the Streak lasted around three and a half hours; less than what we'd ideally expect from a tablet.

Dell Streak is expected to be available in India by mid-October for little under 35,000 rupees. You might want to jump on board the ship right now or wait for OS and Flash 10.1 updates, depending on your priorities. 

Hardware Specs:

- 5” capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800x480) display

-  1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm 

- 5MP auto-focus camera with dual LED flash that can upload to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more 

- VGA front-facing camera for video chat 

- A user-removable and replaceable battery 

- A 3.5mm headphone 

- 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 

- UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA 

- A user-accessible Micro SD slot which is expandable up to 32GB

Software overview:

- A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell UI Tweaks 

- Access to over 38,000 apps via the Android Marketplace

- Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown

-Google Voice support 

-Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views

-Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Dell Streak

Release date: October 15, 2010

Availability: Dell Exclusive stores, Tata DOCOMO 'Dive In' centers and other authorized retailers

Price: INR 34, 990