Dell Streak Android Tablet Sells for Just $300

After months of dancing around the details, Dell confirmed that AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) will launch its Android-powered Streak tablet, with a 5-inch screen, for $300 with a two-year contract beginning Aug. 12.

This week, a second big computer company, Dell, is joining the new tablet war in the U.S. But Dell's first offering in the category, called the Streak—first introduced in the U.K.—is very different from the iPad, and somewhat peculiar. It's much smaller—with just a 5-inch screen—and makes cellular voice calls, something the iPad can't do.

It is really a tweener device, a design compromise. Depending on how you use it, the Streak can be considered a giant smartphone or a minitablet. Dell is positioning it as a tablet, but, to me, it's more of a very large smartphone, but one that, for many, will be too large to carry around comfortably.

Dell's Streak runs on Google's Android operating system, with access to some 70,000 thirdparty apps available in the Android Market store.

Depending on how you buy it, the Streak can cost either less or more than the base $499 iPad. It goes on sale Aug. 13 at $300 if you sign up for a new two-year AT&T contract, which must include a data plan. (The cheapest iPad with cellular data connectivity is $629.) Or, you can get a Streak for $550 without an AT&T contract. Dell says neither U.S. version can be used with any other phone carrier, though the $550 model can be used as a Wi-Fi-only device, just like the $499 iPad.

The Streak will be available only through Dell's website, not at any stores, not even AT&T's.

The Streak runs on Google's Android operating system, and has access to the 70,000 or so third-party apps available in the Android Market app store. But I couldn't find, and Dell couldn't identify, any apps written especially for its larger screen. In fact, a few Android apps I tested seemed to crowd all their icons into just a portion of the Streak's screen, especially when the device was held vertically, leaving lots of white space.

The Streak's 5-inch screen is much larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch display, or the 3.2-inch screen on the new BlackBerry Torch. But it didn't feel radically larger to me than the 4.3-inch display on some of the newer Android smartphones, such as the HTC EVO, which, while bulky for a phone, is still much easier to fit in a pocket than the Streak is.

The Streak is a long, skinny device. It's 6 inches long and 3.11 inches wide, about a fourth the footprint of the iPad, which isn't meant to go in a pocket, but considerably longer and somewhat wider than the EVO, which is. It's much lighter than the iPad, at just under half a pound, but heavier than many smartphones.

Was this helpful? 0 0 Comments

You're reading Dell Streak Android Tablet Sells for Just $300 .