Optus offers Dell Streak and Acer Iconia Android tablets

Stuart Corner
Monday, 21 November 2011 08:01

Your IT - Mobility

Optus is now selling the Dell Streak 7 and Acer Iconia A501 Android based tablets.

The Dell Streak 7 will be available for $0 upfront on the $29 Optus Tablet plan over 24 months and the Acer Iconia will be $0 upfront on the $39 Optus Tablet plan over 24 months. The Dell Streak 7 is also available with a prepaid SIM for $279.

The Dell Streak 7 uses a Tegra T20 dual core processor and runs Android Honeycomb 3.2. It has a 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash, a 7 inch WVGA capacitive screen, 16GB internal memory and SD card slot with support for up to 32GB. It comes with an inbuilt HSPA+ modem.
The Acer Iconia A501 has a 10.1 inch multi-touch screen, mini HDMI connector and is available in both 16 and 32GB storage capacities. It uses a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and also runs Android Honeycomb 3.2. It too has an HSPA+ modem and, according to Optus with its high-resolution screen and ultra-sensitive gyro meter "1 is a formidable portable gaming device."

However, support for HSPA+ in the Optus network is still very limited. The company announced in September that it had upgraded 700 base stations to HSPA+ and said that it planned to continue to extend its HSPA+ footprint, but gave no details. An Optus spokeswoman told iTWire today that Optus planned to upgrade most of its network to HSPA+ over the next 12 months but was unable to provide any information on progress beyond the 700 figure.

Optus was first to launch the original Dell Streak in Australia back in September 2010. That was a five inch device and Dell was making much of the fact that it was both phone and tablet: small for a tablet and big for a phone but unlike most tablets, a fully functioning 3G cellphone. The Streak 7 however does not have phone functionality.