Hands On: Dell ?Streak? Tablet Feels Like Supersized Phone

Dell’s new tablet called the Streak is set to make its debut in the U.S. this summer. But while temperatures have been soaring, there’s still no sign of the device. The Streak, which was launched in Britain last month for 450 British pounds, is expected to be available on AT&T for $500.

Dell now says it has been testing the device and hopes to have it in the hands of U.S. consumers soon. The company still won’t disclose the exact availability. Meanwhile, Gadget Lab got some hands-on time with the U.S. version of the Streak.

Nearly 30 percent thinner than the iPhone 3G S, the Streak bills itself as a tablet but also offers the option of a SIM card in it, so you can make phone calls. The device includes 3G connectivity and a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Think of it as a turbocharged phone.

“The 3.5-inch-to-4-inch screen devices are optimized primarily around the phone experience,” says Kevin Andrew, product manager for Dell.”The Streak is for those who want something bigger than a phone but not something so big they have to carry it separately.”

The Streak fits the bill. It is ultrathin, lightweight (7.8 ounces) and extremely easy to use. Read on for our hands-on impression of the tablet.

The Streak’s 5-inch touchscreen display is just a little bigger than the latest crop of Android smartphones (HTC Evo and Droid X each sport a 4.3-inch touchscreen) but significantly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch display. That puts the Streak in an awkward middle ground: too big to be a phone, too small to directly take on the iPad.

But the Streak’s 5-inch display looks much better in real life than it sounds on paper. The screen is smooth, responsive and big enough to comfortably type on and access different widgets.

The device itself is ultrathin, just 9.9 mm thick compared to the iPhone 3G’s 12.3 mm and almost on par with the iPhone 4.� It slips easily into your jeans or jacket pocket and doesn’t feel awkward if you hold it up to your ear to make a phone call.

The Streak has just one 30-pin connector and no USB port.

The Streak runs Android 1.6, which seems ancient considering that Google has released Android 2.2 Froyo.

But Dell says it has created an enhanced version of Android 1.6 that puts it almost on par with Android 2.0 Eclair.

“If you compare Android 1.6 on the Streak to Eclair, the only feature that is missing versus Eclair is the live wallpapers,” says Andrew.

The Android experience on the Streak is very similar to what we have seen on the latest Android cellphones. The Streak supports up to six home screens. The main screen (shown above) has icons for phone, calendar, messaging, browser, maps and market, among other things.

A small round dot at the top left corner of the screen acts as a shortcut to applications. Streak users can download apps from the Android market.

The Streak has a 5-megapixel camera on the back and 0.3-megapixel VGA videocam on the front.�It can shoot videos up to 720p (1280 x 720 pixels resolution). Sharing photos is easy and should be familiar to most Android phone users; Click on the photo, choose the Share button from the virtual menu and pick Facebook, Twitter or Flickr to upload it to.

Dell also offers an accessory dock, with an HDMI output that can be connected to a TV.

The Streak will have a user-replaceable battery, internal storage of 2 GB and additional storage up to 32 GB using a microSD card.

Overall, the Streak is an exciting, well-engineered device that should appeal to consumers who want to supersize their phone. But that also means its unlikely to have Apple or iPad fans quaking. The Streak seems like a tablet for a very different audience than the iPad.

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