Dell Streak: my own review

I have been trying different Android lately and I go tmy hands into the Dell Streak lately. Until now most of the alternatives to the Ipad were Chinese Android devices, including the Huawei S7 which I was using for a while. Many of them were good devices, but to beat the Ipad specially when you don't have a brand you need more

So I took the Dell Streak, no expectations but excited (and 1 month later I am still using it quite regularly)


Hardware: beautiful, elegant, slim. Very sexy
Size and weight: Very light (220g). Fits on my trousers back pocket beautifully
Screen: crispy, however size seems like a big phone. No way I can use it to do presentations or prepare documents. Mostly great for web browsing, messaging and email reading 
Software: my unit has Android 1.6. Not enough. It needs at least 2.1 (which supposedly is coming any time on the coming weeks and will be using frodo (2.2) before the end of year).  You notice mostly on the screen transitions. Most of the Android apps are working. What it is nice is that if you are familiar with Android there is no learning curve
Battery: one of the weakest points of the unit. Gives you at the most 2 hours specially if you use the phone functions
Phone: obviously you are not going to use it to talk using it as a normal phone but it does a good job using a bluetooth headset or headphones. The speakerphone is not as good as it could be
Camera: great picture camera, one of the best I have seen but weak video 


Verdict: I love playing with this unit and doing my newspaper browsing while having breakfast. Or watching some youtube videos. But as one of the bloggers in Latvia asked me the other day "what do you do with it?", there is no clear usage. It could replace my laptop on the weekend, but for that it needs a better battery and android 2.1. Or it could replace my Blackberry on the weekend (even during the week), but it is not that easy to write quickly (having said that after several months I am starting to type rather quickly at the HTC desire unit that I usually play with)
And with a price tag of 500 Eur I believe it can't be a mass market. (it needs to be on the 250-300 Eur range)
furthermore having a unit as the Samsung galaxy coming along

BTW as the Samsung Galaxy gets a lot of press these days, this is a great review and comparison of both the streak and the galaxy (which I hope to be testing very soon)
Link to Know your mobile.com comporison galaxy vs. streak


Product Features
Screen 5'' WVGA (gorilla Glass Display)
1GHZ Qualcomm processor
5.0 MP (rear)/VGA (front) camera
3G (modem 7.2/5.76)
Bluetooth 
Battery 4.7 W
Memory Internal 16gb + Micro SD (external)
Measurements 152.9 x 79.1 x 10 mm

More details on features, I like this site

Link to gsm arena Dell Streak detailed product features