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Dell Streak Review

The Dell Streak ships with a dual camera configuration. A front facing 640×480 model and a rear facing 5 megapixel unit which delivers 2592×1944 pixel resolution. Both of which can also record video – at 640×480.

Sadly I found the quality of both poor, with photographs only looking at best average under near perfect outdoor lighting conditions.

The camera application offers the standarised set of Android camera options such as white balance, JPEG compression and syncing to 50/60hz signals for recording video.

The image above is about as good as the camera quality gets – it isn't too bad, but there is heavy shadow noise and colour balance issues. We also noticed that unless the light level was high that the camera had a tendency to blur images also.

Auto flash is not present and you can either turn it on, or off manually. As you use the camera in a landscape mode, we also found it really easy to accidentally cover the camera lens with a finger. The camera application is also extremely slow in operation, with 3 second waits between shooting, then preview and then the next shot.

Video quality is also quite poor and the Streak struggles to deliver indoor video footage with clean white balance. The video above is a clear indication of the camera auto adjusting the white balance mid way through (around 7 seconds in) and getting it wrong. In live view mode we also found the response would judder in poorly lit conditions, much like overloading a video card and seeing the frame rate drop in half.

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24 comments

  1. that was a great review, its better than I thought 🙂

  2. This is a really nice phone – good size !

  3. Screen is good, but man that camera sucks big time. most phone cameras are crap anyway. all those megapixel ratings are meaningless.

  4. Well this is quite good, better than I expected. I mean I read the review on engadget but they are more mainstream, nice to get some technical analysis here. Seems like a solid buy. price isnt too bad either I suppose.

  5. Dell stream is lovely, my friend bought one from O2, his contract is far too much though. he is paying out the ass for it.

  6. I agree with reviewer. Android is lovely but current revision is quite slow at times.

  7. phones now as well? lol this keeps getting better. good review Zardon. not sure on the product however, it looks quite big in the first photo on page 1. still might be too much for a phone IMO.

  8. Good review. why can companies not make a unit with a good camera though, why is this so hard??

  9. I almost bought the new iphone last week, this might be better !

  10. Looks a lot better than I expected. battery life is really strong, my iphone drives me nuts, every day recharging even when I dont use the fucking thing.

  11. I hate the battery in my phone, swore id get one with good battery life next time. This however is asking for a hefty price plan, and im not paying a fortune for pay as you go for it either.

  12. So tempted to get t his on a monthly pay plan – was holding back for ipad 7 inch, but this looks amazing. I never use the camera on these anyway.

  13. I was tempted until I saw the camera quality. picture quality isnt bad but video is horrific. my old sanyo camera is better than that 🙁

  14. Damn this is really sexy, but ive no money left. I hate this site so much 🙂

  15. Like it, but not quite enough to spend 400+ on it

  16. What a really good design from Dell, I like the maps option, looks really good on such a big screen. Im tempted.

  17. Great review ! loved the testing and still some way to go before its going to compete with the iphone on performance. android is young and its shaping up well. I want o support this platform so badly. just need to work out some funds to get one like the Dell Streak

  18. This is really beautiful ! I cant believe dell made something this attractive, most of their laptops look really ugly.

  19. Hello, first time here, thank you for the excellent review. i am getting this for my boyfriend for his birthday. I hope he will love it.

  20. I only found this site last week and its my home page, please keep up all the reviews and excellent news. very good work all round.

    Dell Streak is quite nice but some way to go before they get apple sales.

  21. Really looks awesome. I hope to pick up one of these within the next couple weeks. Zardon you just affirmed my choice to pick one up. So one question….Is the home screen always landscaped then? I assume so and it’s not that big of a deal just curious.

  22. Hello, Mugen Power just released the 4800mAH Extended Battery for for Dell Streak,

    it should be last triple time with 1 charge than the stock battery!

    http://mugen.hk/mugen-power-4800mah-extended-battery-for-dell-streak-m01m.html

  23. good review. i like my new streak. it’s easy to manuever and the apps are fun. it’s got great games and it helps me with my business. great unlocked cell phones. the wifi and email are great for keeping in touch with my clients. my wife and daughter love theirs for the games. keeps em quiet in the car seems some people have a problem with the size but i’m ok with it. much better than my tiny unlocked blackberry phones. anyways i got 3 and i like it. ipad was too big and my old pearl was a little ant compared to this. also got my phone unlocking and blackberry unlock codes for free! got my last couple streaks at unlockthatphone.com pretty good. 2 thumbs up on this device.

  24. Dell streak camera sucks big time. it takes scrapie pictures, music player suck too the sound not even come close to iphone 3gs. Firmware still 1.6. come on. where is the update?. Just an average phone comparing to iphone 4.