I'm pumped to finally get a chance to blog about the upcoming Dell Streak tablet device. Since we first
previewed the Dell Streak at CES 2010, it's been
making waves in the blogosphere ever since. The 5-inch tablet will launch first to customers in the United Kingdom in early June. Customers there will be able to purchase it
across the UK at
O2 stores,
O2.co.uk, The
Carphone Warehouse and later this month on
Dell.co.uk. Pricing and data plans for UK customers will be announced by O2 before availability. We plan to make the Dell Streak available to customers in the United States later this summer.
I've been at Dell for 16 years, and I don't think there's
ever been more buzz around a single Dell product than this. In my view, that's for good reason. Hardware and design-wise, this thing impresses. Add the ever-increasing
capability that Android brings to the equation, and you've got a mobile device that offers a ton of flexibility while looking cool in the process. The Dell Streak brings together a great web browsing experience, multi-tasking capability, slick turn by turn navigation and a great way to enjoy your photos, movies and music into a sleek device that's built for mobility.
Update: Here's a short video we uploaded to the
Dell YouTube channel that provides a quick overview of what you can use Streak for:
The Dell Streak is a hybrid device that lives in the space between a smartphone and other larger tablets or netbooks that you might be using right now. We designed it to provide a wide range of users flexibility to do what they need with a mobile device. That's why we packed the Dell Streak with a lot of features. We'll utilize that flexibility via over-the-air updates for platform upgrades,
Adobe Flash 10.1 on
Android 2.2 later this year, plus other enhancements like video chat applications and more.
After using the Dell Streak for a bit, one thing that really stands out in my opinion is the screen. The vivid, 5-inch diagonal display may seem only slightly larger than many of the smartphones making waves out there specs-wise. But when that larger screen is coupled with higher pixel density, it's surprising how much difference that extra inch and a half or so makes in everyday activities like browsing the web, playing games or watching video. Because it's made with
Gorilla Glass the screen also has a pretty big durability advantage over more fragile mobile devices. Take a look at the
Gizmodo hands-on to see what I mean. The Dell Streak is thin (10mm-which is thinner than a lot of mobile devices out there), and though it's just a bit heavier than other smartphones, it feels solid and balanced-which makes using it pretty natural across a number of activities. We'll also offer all kinds of Dell Streak accessories like a car dock kit, battery replacements, a home AV dock and more.
The Dell Streak is a device designed for accessing entertainment, navigating your busy schedule and connecting you to the friends and family who matter to you. If you want dig into more details, check out this video interview with Kevin Andrew from the Dell Streak development team:
Hardware-wise, the Dell Streak features the following:
- A sharp 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800x480) display for a great full-screen experience watching video or browsing the web
- Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm
- 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash that offers easy point & shoot capability and quick uploads toYouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
- VGA front-facing camera enables video chat functionality down the road
- A user-removable (and replaceable) battery
- A 3.5mm headphone jack means many of you can use the Dell Streak as the music source (and more) in your car
- Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 (think headsets, external keyboards, stereo headsets, etc.)
- UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA
- A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB. That means you can store lots of movies, music, photos or other kinds of files.
On the software side, here's what you can expect:
- A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell user interface enhancements
- Access to over 38,000 apps (and growing) via the Android Marketplace
- Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown
- Google Voice support
- Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
- Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
Like an increasing number of our laptop and netbook products, Dell Streak will ship with cushions made from
compostable bamboo.
More Dell Streak details will be coming in subsequent posts. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments or questions to this blog post, or follow the discussion on Twitter by using the
#DellStreak hashtag.