KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Streak has been an interesting product to review and we walk away feeling that Dell have gotten most of it right. Browsing the internet is much easier than on an Apple iPhone and the experience is significantly improved thanks to the additional physical real estate. The benefits also include having a larger touch screen to work with … making SMS, email and internet browsing much easier. Especially if you have big hands, like myself.
From the point of view of ergonomics and screen quality I don't think you will get much better than this – the Streak is thin enough to carry around all the time and its just big enough to enjoy a movie or to watch Youtube clips without feeling shortchanged. The call quality and user interface is also very impressive.
The battery life knocked us out, we managed to last three or four days with light general use (some phone calls, a few texts and some random email checking) and if you leave it inactive with Wi-Fi enabled we managed to almost get a full week out of it, which is even better than our long life Nokia E71.
Negatively we find that performance is unfortunately a little lacking in places, even though it ships with a snappy (on paper) Qualcomm 1GHZ processor. Android 1.6 is in clear need of an update and thankfully this is coming before the end of the year with V2.2.
The camera operation and quality borders on sub standard. People who only look at figures and see “5MP” will wonder why everything tends to look slightly out of focus with skewed saturation and out of balance colour. Video quality is also abysmal.
Overall however, when we balance all the pros and cons, if you can live without the camera and don't mind the occasional slow down when browsing some webpages then this is a great product with a sharp screen and beautiful appearance. Just be prepared to deal with some unusual looks when you answer this rather large phone in public places.
KitGuru says: Dell have managed to deliver a well rounded product, but we want to see Android OS 2.2 released very shortly to fix some of the issues.
that was a great review, its better than I thought 🙂
This is a really nice phone – good size !
Screen is good, but man that camera sucks big time. most phone cameras are crap anyway. all those megapixel ratings are meaningless.
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.
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.
I agree with reviewer. Android is lovely but current revision is quite slow at times.
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.
Good review. why can companies not make a unit with a good camera though, why is this so hard??
I almost bought the new iphone last week, this might be better !
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.
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.
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.
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 🙁
Damn this is really sexy, but ive no money left. I hate this site so much 🙂
Like it, but not quite enough to spend 400+ on it
What a really good design from Dell, I like the maps option, looks really good on such a big screen. Im tempted.
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
This is really beautiful ! I cant believe dell made something this attractive, most of their laptops look really ugly.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.