Dell strikes Streak launch masterstroke, pokes Tab and iPad

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 24 September 2010 20:10

Your IT - Mobility

Next Friday, Dell's streak becomes the first mainstream, brand name, quality Android tablet/smartphone hybrid to become available at retail in Australia, beating Samsung's Galaxy Tab November launch by a few weeks and becoming the third major contender in the smart tablet phone race!

Promising availability from a tantalisingly close date of October 1, 2010, Dell's Streak is months behind the iPad but weeks before Samsung's Galaxy Tab in availability for consumers wanting a real, useable and portable multitouch tablet/smartphone that isn't as big as an iPad yet is bigger than an iPhone or iPad Touch.

Some will add that they don't want it to be Apple either, and for that there are two choices at retail soon to come - Dell's 5-inch Streak from October 1 exclusively for three months via Optus, and Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab 'in November' on all four major carriers.

More about the world of iPad alternatives on page two, but for now, Dell's Streak will be available for AUD $649 'standalone', as the press release puts it, which compares with the AUD $999 outright price of the Galaxy Tab, Optus is also offering the Streak at $0 upfront on 24 month $59 cap plan with 2GB of data per month, unlimited standard national SMS & MMS, unlimited access to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and up to $500 worth of calls national calls.

Although the 5-inch screen is naturally smaller than the 7-inch screen of the Tab, it's still a huge screen by current smartphone standards and enhances the smartphone experience so much it transforms it into a mini-tablet, so versatile is the underlying Android OS, with naturally even better and properly tablet-optimised experiences still promised to come.

But that's all in the future. Dell says its Streak is a 'carbon black Android-based tablet with a 5-inch display, is designed to provide an excellent on-the-go entertainment, social connection, and navigation experience', with a 'spacious 5-inch screen is ideal for experiencing thousands of Android Market widgets, games and applications, all without squinting or compromising portability.'

Also included, in brief, is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3.5G mobile broadband, downloading and listening to music, updating social networking status on the go, and staying connected to friends and family through e-mail, text, IM, and voice calls.

Although the Streak comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Dell has customised Android 1.6 for the task of powering the device, giving it some of the features you'd get in 2.1 without actually being a 2.1 device or even a 2.2 device, as the Galaxy Tab is. As such, it's still powerful but lacks the speed optimisations that Android OS 2.2 Froyo promises to bring when the Streak is updated to 2.2 'later this year'.

That said it performs its tasks much as you'd expect, letting you surf the web, browse contacts, do email and editing, use apps and more on a nicely  5-inch sized screen that is a welcome sight to eyes accustomed to a 3.5-inch experience.

7-inch is nicer still but hey, now we have a choice in sizes we didn't before on an OS that wasn't available in these sizes from brand names with Android Market access, with Apple yet to respond in the 7-inch space in the face of persistent rumours such an iPad is coming, although probably not until the iPad 2 models arrive next year.

And even though competitors are coming, with the Galaxy Tab hot on the Streak's tail and the iPad already gunning for both, it is good to know that Dell says its Streak 'was designed with the future in mind to support future software, application and platform upgrades.'

Tabletopia continues on page two followed by some Dell Streak specs, please read on!