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Dell Streak 16GB review: Dell Streak 16GB

Dell Streak 16GB

Donald Bell Senior Editor / How To
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
Donald Bell
7 min read

5.0

Dell Streak 16GB

The Good

The Dell Streak offers an unprecedented combination of processor power, screen size, and design quality. Support for 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth hit all the wireless sweet spots, while photo, camcorder, and calling capabilities blur the boundaries between tablet and phone.

The Bad

Battery life isn't great, the touch-screen keyboard is awkward, music quality is below average, and the position of the camera tends to cloud photos and video.

The Bottom Line

The Dell Streak is the first Android tablet worth taking seriously, though its size puts it on the fence between tablets and smartphones.

Editors' note: Dell has released a larger version of the Streak for T-Mobile, one that is compatible with 4G wireless speeds. It has also pushed out an over-the-air update for the Streak's operating system, bringing the device up to Android 2.2 (Froyo) from 1.6 (Donut) and enabling support for Adobe Flash, Microsoft Exchange, and Swype text input. Still, given the change in the competitive landscape since our original review, we have lowered the rating of this product to better reflect its value.

Editors' note: Thanks to the release of recent, high-quality tablets, the overall score of the Streak 7 has been adjusted down from 7 to 5.

Everyone is eager to see a serious competitor for the Apple iPad tablet computer. For the moment, the Dell Streak is the strongest contender we've seen, though its pocket-size design and phone capabilities have us wondering if it shouldn't really be judged as a smartphone. However you want to define it, the Streak's features and design quality are simply too tantalizing to ignore, even if its price ($299 with a two-year AT&T contract, $549 without contract) is tough to swallow.

Design
The most notable aspect of the Dell Streak is its design. Chances are, you already know what Google's Android operating system is capable of, and the Streak's phonelike hardware capabilities (camera, touch screen, memory expansion) are nothing we haven't seen before.

When you pick up a Streak for the first time, the first thing you'll notice is its size. At 6 inches wide, 3.2 inches tall, and 0.35 inch thick, the Streak is about the size as a pocket Moleskine notebook. It breaks the norm for smartphone dimensions, yet it's nearly a third the size of Apple's iPad tablet.

The size charts new territory in the middle ground, and potential buyers should be aware that it does not fit naturally as a replacement for your phone or your laptop. That said, if you're having a Goldilocks moment looking for that "just right" compromise between convenience, portability, and features, the Streak should be at the top of your list for consideration.

Putting the issue of size aside, the design quality of the Streak is solid, and befitting of the $500 price range. The 5-inch capacitive touch screen is covered in a seemingly indestructible Gorilla Glass, developed by Corning, though the tapered edges to the left and right of it use a more conventional scratch-resistant plastic. These same edges also conceal three soft keys (back, menu, home), an earpiece, microphone, and a front-facing VGA-resolution camera. We carried the Streak loosely in a messenger bag for weeks, along with keys, loose change, and an iPod, and failed to make a dent or scratch in its finish.

On the flip side of the Streak you'll find a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with an integrated LED flash. The camera is awkwardly placed, so your left hand tends to obscure the lens when holding the Streak in its prescribed landscape orientation. Anyone with common sense will, of course, reposition their hand before snapping a photo or recording video, but the fingerprints left on the lens through regular use do tend to cloud the image quality.

The back of the Streak also includes a small speaker grille at the edge of a large battery cover. Along with a removable, rechargeable battery, the Streak battery compartment also offers access to a SIM card slot and the included 16GB microSD memory card. Both the SIM and microSD cards can be swapped out quickly, but removing the door to the battery compartment will automatically shut down the Streak as a safety measure. A cold boot after removing the battery cover takes about 40 seconds.

Slim buttons for volume, power, and camera mode run across the top edge of the Streak, along with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack (in-ear headphones come included). Our only complaint with the buttons is that the power and camera buttons have an identical shape and are place directly next to one another, making it easy to confuse them.

Finally, the bottom of the Streak offers a 30-pin connection, which is similar to (but not compatible with) the iPad's. A USB cable compatible with the connection comes included, along with a wall-charging adapter. The 30-pin connection is also compatible with Dell's AV dock accessory, which is sold separately and includes connections for HDMI, mini-USB, and audio line-out.

Features
The Dell Streak fits right in with today's superbly specced Android smartphones. It ships with Android 2.2 installed (or available as an over-the-air update), supporting what we now consider must-have Android features, including Adobe Flash compatibility, native Exchange sync, and multitouch gesture support.

Though the Streak doesn't break much new ground in the world of smartphones, as a 5-inch Android tablet, it's without equal. Similar offerings, such as the Archos 5 simply don't have the speed, specs, or design quality to match the Streak. They've also all lacked one critical feature: the Android App Market.

Arguably, today's fascination with mobile technology is rooted in a larger obsession with apps--the more, the better. Not every app in the Android Market is available for the Streak, and many apps simply aren't optimized for the device's larger screen and landscape orientation. Still, it's a larger pool of apps than we've been able to access on any tablet beyond the iPad.

Just as important is the fact that the Streak's phone, photo, and video capabilities allow for some features you won't find on other tablets--including text messaging, video calling (which we tested using Fring), and mobile photo and video uploads.

For those of you too timid to browse and install third-party apps, the Streak offers dozens of great features right out of the box. The home screen offers shortcuts to the Web browser, maps, phone, contacts database, messaging, Gmail, camera, YouTube, Amazon MP3 store, the Android music player, and a floating Google search bar that responds to type or voice. A tap on the app drawer (located at the top of the screen) reveals dozens of other preinstalled apps, which can be dragged onto one of the Streak's four customizable home screens.

Performance
There's a lot to love about how Streak handles the rigors of real-world use. Unlike the lumbering resistive screens of the Android e-readers and Archos tablets we've tested, the capacitive screen of the Streak offers swift reaction times that rival the iPad. The 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor at the core of the Streak had no issues handling any of the tasks we threw at it and provided the type of rapid app launching and switching we've grown accustomed to from high-end Android smartphones.

Web site load times are also neck and neck with those from Apple, with some exceptions. Over our local Wi-Fi hot spot, loading the full version of Facebook took just 9 seconds on the Streak compared with 7 seconds with the iPad. Both devices tied at 8 seconds for loading Google News. The New York Times site took a full minute to load on the Streak, compared with 16 seconds on the iPad, however, the Streak was likely stalled by attempting to load Flash video content, while the iPad was specifically served a version of the site optimized for HTML5. We also noticed that the Streak tended to default to mobile versions of Web sites designed for phones, whereas the iPad's browser typically loaded sites in their full, undiluted form.

Another high point of the Dell Streak is its call quality. Chalk it up to the earpiece and microphone matching up nicely to our ear and mouth, but we found calls to sound clear, both coming and going. In addition to the built-in microphone, the included stereo headset includes an in-line mic and call-answer button, and the Streak supports Bluetooth 2.1 EDR for a full range of wireless calling and accessory capabilities.

We're reasonably satisfied with the Streak's photo and image quality--though the max resolution for video capture is 640x480, and as we mentioned previously, image quality suffers from the inescapably smudgy lens. A gallery of sample images taken with the Streak isavailable here, as well as a sample video recorded using the Streak's maximum resolution. Update: The Streak's Android 2.2 update has increased the device's video capture resolution to 720p.

Prior to Dell's Android 2.2 update, we were not big fan's of the Streak's touch-screen keyboard. In short, it was awkwardly laid out and less than accurate. Fortunately, the Froyo update has made a big improvement, delivering a nice QWERTY keyboard that stretches naturally from edge to edge and responds with improved accuracy. For those who can't be bothered to actually lift your fingers, Swype predictive text support is included by default (similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab).

The Streak's audio quality isn't great. Loading media via supported MSC or MTP USB connections worked without any hiccups, but playback through the Streak's headphone jack was plagued by constant background hiss and a generally muffled quality. Throw in the audible pops heard while adjusting the volume, and we think it's safe to say that audio playback quality didn't rank high in Dell's list of priorities. It's about par for cell phone audio quality--but among the few tablets we've tested in this price range, it sits near the bottom.

Finally, there's battery life. Dell offers no promises on how long you should expect the included battery to stay charged, though, we've heard reports of up to 9 hours of talk time. By default, the Streak's screen brightness is set to about 25 percent, which we found completely impractical for viewing outdoors. Set at 75 percent, the Streak's onscreen camera viewfinder becomes usable outdoors, and battery life drains at a noticeably quickened pace.

Though it's in some ways unfair to compare the Streak to a device like the Apple iPad, which is nearly three times its size and capable of containing a larger battery, Dell has forced this comparison on itself by defining the Streak as a tablet. During our informal testing, with screen brightness at a useful 75 percent, we averaged around 6 hours of battery life with the Streak, which is nearly half that of the iPad. Here are our official CNET Labs tested results. More tablet testing results can be found here.

Video battery life (in hours) Web site load time (in seconds; lower is better) Maximum brightness (in cd/m2) Default brightness (in cd/m2) Contrast ratio
Dell Streak 4.7 8 340 135 1,172:1

5.0

Dell Streak 16GB

Score Breakdown

Design 5Features 5Performance 5