Great in the looks and hardware department, but lacks in performance and features."
DELL STREAK
VERDICT: Great in the looks and hardware department,
but lacks in performance and features.
FOR: Good looking device, camera image quality is
good, decent music player.
AGAINST: On-screen keypad could have been better,
volume on calls is low, low battery life, comes with Android 1.6.
The Dell Streak is a lot smaller than your average tablet and a lot bigger than a large touchscreen mobile phone. So the question is, just where does it fit in? Dressed in all black, we have to admit that it’s quite a looker. It’s just 10 mm thick, which actually makes it a lot slimmer than quite a few smartphones. Weighing just 220 g, it’s comfortable to hold as well. It’s got 2.2 GB of internal memory and it also supports microSD cards of up to 32 GB. Although there’s a hot swap under the rear panel for the memory card, for some strange reason, the handset tends to auto switch-off if the panel is opened. The 3.5 mm hands-free port is located on one side, or rather the top of the device, since it’s typically supposed to be used in landscape mode like the Nokia N900. The volume/zoom keys, screen lock and the camera’s shutter release are also
located on this side.
Dell’s first mistake is incorporating a proprietary USB/charging port (bottom) into the Streak. Since it’s pretty much a large mobile handset, it would have been a whole lot simpler on us if they went with a standard micro USB socket. Dell has gone with touch-sensitive buttons on one side of the display. A microphone is also located on the same side. A light sensor and front-facing VGA camera are located on the other side just near the phone’s speaker. Using this rather large device to answer calls takes a lot of getting used to, so we’d recommend using the hands-free instead. The large 5-inch touchscreen display sports a 480x800 pixel resolution, which makes it clear and easy to view even in the bright outdoors.
Dell’s second mistake is launching a device like this with an outdated version of the operating system. The Streak comes with Android 1.6 and we were told that it’s upgradeable to 2.1 (although we were unable to do so). Donut just doesn’t cut it anymore, and while Éclair has its fl aws, it left 1.6 in its dust long ago. If you’re removing shortcuts/ widgets from the desktop, there’s no click-anddrag- to-Trash option; you’ll have to select the icon and then select the menu button to remove the item. It allows you to create multiple desktops, and wallpapers can be set individually to each. The drop-down menus make it easy to access various options, notifi cations and settings. We had a couple of issues with the UI. Firstly, multi-touch wasn’t a universal function. On any Android 2.1+ handset, Angry Birds would allow you to pinch zoom out so you can see just where you’re firing. Thankfully, the browser and image gallery allow for multi-touch zooming without a hitch. It still isn’t as smooth as the iPhone’s, but it’ll do. We expected a bit more in terms of speed from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor. It’s not a slow handset, but activating apps and opening menus wasn’t as smooth as we’d hoped. The keypad could also have been a little better designed. With the num pad on the side, it means your right thumb is going to have to do a bit of stretching. In portrait mode, the Zero and ‘O’ are too close together since the num pad moves above the QWERTY keypad. It’ll take some getting used to.
There was quite a bit of confusion while syncing Facebook and Google accounts with the device’s phonebook. Most contacts that were downloaded didn’t allow us the option of sending them text
messages until we had synced them with those transferred from the SIM phonebook, which is strange.
The music player is pretty standard in functionality, and it’s loud enough to listen to comfortably in a crowded train. The problem is that neither the hands-free nor the device’s earpiece provide proper clarity on calls. The volume on calls was just too low most of the time. The device also features a voice recorder, but no FM radio. Dell has included an MP3 Store application with the Streak that lets you search for music files and albums to download for a fee. The media player has no frills, except that it allows you to create playlists on the go. Sadly, the device doesn’t support DivX or XviD formats, so you’re going to have to convert videos before you can play them on the Streak. Once converted properly and optimized for the resolution,
though, the viewing experience is not bad at all. Like any high-end mobile phone, the Dell Streak is also well equipped for connectivity. From 3G (HSDPA, HSUPA), EDGE and Wi-Fi to Bluetooth (just version 2.0) with A2DP and USB 2.0, it’s all packed into this device. The Streak also comes with support for Microsoft Exchange and regular POP/IMAP accounts. For added functionality for Exchange, Dell has thrown in the TouchDown App with Active Sync support. Browsing the Internet on the large screen is absolute bliss and the native Android browser works just perfectly for rendering pages in a convenient, easy to read format.
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SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (WxHxD): 79x153x10 mm; Weight:
220 g; Display: 5-inch 480x800 TFT Capacitive;
Memory: 16 GB internal; CPU 1 GHz;OS: Android:
1.6; DATA: GPRS,EDGE,3G,Wi-fi-b/g, Camera: 5 MP |
While the integrated Facebook widget worked out just fine, the one for Twitter refused to let us sign in. Images can be easily shared or sent to email accounts, posted on Twitter, Facebook, Picasa or Flickr with just a couple of easy clicks. The Streak also has a GPS module, but there’s no preinstalled application other than Google Maps. There really aren’t too many other extras thrown in that are worth mentioning. A sync option for your Outlook Notes and tasks is available, Voice Control (which incidentally works really well) from Nuance Technologies, and Google Voice Search are on board as well. Productivity app QuickOffice is also available. The 5 megapixel camera on the Streak comes with a dual LED fl ash and features that include a few scene modes, white balance, multi-shot, self timer and flicker adjustment. Image quality is not bad at all. Whether outdoors or indoors, colors remain quite vivid and the details are quite good for a mobile phone sensor. The Streak isn’t going to win any awards for its 1530mAh battery. Thanks to its large display, battery life is quite low. On an average, it ran for a little over a day and a half with just over three hours of talk time. So here’s the Rs 35,000 question – should you buy the Streak or go in for a mobile handset like the HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S? The handsets off er the same functionality as the Streak does and more, especially with Android 2.2 on board. Stick to a handset, we’d say. Don’t forget that the Galaxy S also comes in a 16 GB capacity and it’s more convenient to carry around. The Dell Streak
just doesn’t fit in. Had it come with Éclair and better preloaded apps, it could be worth considering. On the plus side, it’s still smaller than a standard tablet, so you could just hold it up to your ear to talk, but
it’s really not worth the price when a smaller device that does more is easily available.
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