The much hyped Dell Streak 7 is billed to be one of the powerful tablets from Dell, one of the top PC makers of the world. Check out the Dell Streak 7 Review and know all about this feature-rich tablet that is making waves among gadget buffs.

Ever since the Dell Streak 7 tablet was unveiled at CES 2011, we had been eyeing the piece. At the first chance we got, we set down with the machine to see what it has on offer. As you know, the iPad has set a kind of bar for future tablets. It is always exciting to check whether any tablet has managed to reach higher. Or at least, high enough. So what did we find out? Read on to know.

Dell Streak 7 Design

On the design front, the Dell Streak 7 looks pretty same as other tablets in the market. There is the similar rectangular shape with curved edges and about a couple of convenience buttons placed at the bottom. The chassis is rigid with and built of solid plastic. The frontal area is devoted to a 7 inch Corning Gorilla Glass display which gives an idea of the 7 in the tablet name. Though most tablet makers are opting for a 10 inch screen size, we quite appreciate the 7 inch Dell Streak 7 size of display.

At 199.9 x 119.8 x 12.4 mm, the Dell Streak 7 dimensions look quite perfect though the Dell Streak 7 weight is not, with the device falling on the heavier side at 453.6 g.

Beneath the display lie three capacitive keys – Back, Menu and Home. There is a mic and camera on the front. The right side has a SIM and SD card slot hidden by a smooth plastic latch which can be a little hard to open unless you have long nails. The left side sports a 3.5 mm earphone jack. The top edge bears volume up/down and power on/off buttons. In the Dell Streak 7 HDMI slot is not inbuilt. The makers offer a separate Dell Streak 7 docking station that hooks to a PDMI port at the bottom of the machine.

Dell Streak 7 Display

The 7 inch capacitive touchscreen display is good for a starter but the Dell Streak 7 screen resolution is way below the mark. Think about the 1024 x 768 pixel screen of the iPad2 or the 1,024 X 600 pixel display of the Galaxy Tab and you will know why. The drawback shows when you look at text, images or videos on the Streak 7 screen or simply browse on the tablet. There is multi-touch support, proximity sensor, light sensor and pinch-to-zoom support – all loaded into the tablet.

The brightness, sadly, is nothing to write home about too. Apple, Samsung or Motorola wins hands down over Dell any day. The lack of luminance is felt when you surf in bright environs. If you are unaware of high-end tablet experience, the below-par screen will not affect you. We could have complained more but it is just the low price that really keeps our tongue in check.

Dell Streak 7 Keyboard

We did not find the on-screen keyboard as good as it should be. The touch response is sluggish that affects typing speed. However, there is the Swype application that helps users get away with minor typo errors and swipe on the virtual keyboard to enter text and draw lines. In Landscape mode, the keys look large and well spaced out to enable easy typing.

Dell Streak 7 Hardware

Along with a 16GB internal memory in the Dell Streak 7 RAM of 256MB looks a little bleak. A 512 MB RAM would have been so much better we felt. Dell, are you taking note? Fortunately, there is support for both microSD and microSDHC cards that lets Dell Streak 7 buyers kick up the ROM at least. You can increase the memory by up to 32GB.

The 1000 MHz Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor makes things look up a bit. The Tegra 2 CPU is a performer and credit goes to this chipset for making the device a fast horse. We really enjoyed the tablet performance and rarely had any sluggish issues even while working on simultaneous programs.

There is a 3D Graphics hardware accelerator that improves the multimedia experience by several notches.

Dell Streak 7 Softwares

The Android 2.2 is the Dell Streak 7 OS. If any of you have fiddled with Android ever before, you must be aware how smooth performance is with this OS. The Android Froyo does not give you a reason for complaint. The performance is neat, navigability butter smooth and the themes and wallpapers glassy enough to entice you to hours of tablet fiddling.

Though we would have loved a Dell Streak 7 Gingerbread or a Dell Streak 7 Honeycomb, a Froyo is not a bad experience.

We got our Dell Streak 7 on Tmobile and we were quite pleased to have the fair share of apps that we found on the device. There are e-book readers like Kindle and Zinio, music-streaming services like mSpot and Slacker and video-streaming Dell Streak 7 apps like T-Mobile TV and Blockbuster. In the Dell Streak 7 YouTube lovers will also get a dedicated app pointing to their favourite video-sharing site. Social networkers will love dedicated apps for websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. In the Dell Streak 7 GPS, WIFI, brightness and Bluetooth can be quickly accessed by a smart widget.

Dell Streak 7 Multimedia Performance

Things look up quite a bit when you check the multimedia features of this little PC. The dual Dell Streak 7 cameras are great! The primary 5MP camera at the back of the device is loaded with LED flash, geo-tagging and autofocus and shoots images at a 2592?1944 pixel resolution. The front-facing 1.3 MP camera is for video-conferencing and can capture videos at a 720p quality.

The Streak 7 can play a wide number of video formats like 3GP, WMV, H.263, H.264 and MPEG4. As said, there is an onboard application that can play YouTube videos. The Dell Streak 7 video quality is good enough though the sub-par resolution kills the joy.

There is not much complaint on the audio front either though we would have liked it a little louder. The audio level is just inadequate while you watch videos and movies on the tablet. It is only at full volume that you can really enjoy songs. The sound quality is pretty good however and minus any distortions. The device lets you play audio file formats like MP3, WMA, eAAC+ and WAV.

Sadly, there is no FM Radio on this tablet. So no listening to your favorite stations.

Dell and TMobile have thrown in a few interesting games into the tablet. We had a ball playing games like Let’s Golf and Asphalt 5. There are apps like Zoodles that offers many games to kids. There is even a lock button that disables the home key.

Dell Streak 7 Features

On the connectivity front, the tablet leaves no room for complaint. There is 3G, WIFI, GPRS ad EDGE – choose what you like. Our browsing experience was great and if you live close to the network towers like we do, the speed will not be a complaint for you. On an average, we had a 1.62 Mbps download speed and a 1.11 Mbps upload speed. The built-in HTML browser renders pages easily and the 4G connectivity just helps matters.

For local tablet to PC or tablet to smartphone connectivity, you may always fall back on good old Bluetooth and USB cable.

Incidentally, there is a Dell Streak 7 WIFI-only tablet launching soon. It has no support for SMS, MMS or GSM voice communication. The Dell Streak 7 has support for IM and Email and is also integrated with apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Organizer, Photo viewer/editor, QuickOffice document viewer and Digital compass.

Dell Streak 7 Accessories

The tablet arrives in a white box featuring glossy images of the device and its many apps. The box contents includes a Dell Streak 7 manual along with a SIM card, a wired stereo headset, a special Dell charger and the device itself along with the battery.

Dell Streak 7 Battery Life

The tablet is powered by a standard 2780 mAh Lithium Ion battery. With constant usage we found the Dell Streak 7 battery running for almost 4 hours. The stand by time is over 70 hours.

Dell Streak 7 Cost

The Dell Streak 7 India Price is approximately Rs. 22, 810. Dell Streak 7 price in USA is about $199 with contract and $450 without it. The Dell Streak 7 UK price is around $330.

Dell Streak 7 Release Date

The Dell Streak 7 tablet has already released in the US on 2nd February, 2011. Dell Streak 7 UK Release Date has not been announced yet. The Dell Streak 7 Launch Date in India is also unknown as of now.

Conclusion

Bigger bulk, a smaller screen size, a below-average display, an unimpressive touch response, lack of FM radio and a short battery life – complaints are endless about this device. But the reasonable pricing and powerful multimedia features save the day and make the Dell Streak 7 Android Tablet a tolerable gadget. But ‘tolerable’ is not what buyers look for. Unless you are actually in love with the brand, it is better for you to save bucks to buy the Galaxy Tab or the Motorola Xoom.

With a slew of first-class products, Dell has made a name for itself in the technology sector. The Dell Venue Pro is a testament of another of this US maker’s honest attempts at making a foray into the smartphone market. So has it managed to succeed or has it tanked big time? We will share with you all that we found out about the Dell Venue Windows phone 7.

Dell Venue Design

Slim is in and the Venue stands as a proof. Yup, the Dell Venue dimensions measure 122 x 63.5 x 15.2 mm which are excellent by smartphone standards. The lean build let us hold it without any discomfort and hopefully, you would not have any either. We can even say that some of the recent phones can take a look at the Dell Venue size and learn. It is that good. The 192.8 gm Dell Venue thickness is however, a downer. Weighty it is not. But long conversations can be a tad discomforting to the wrist as we found out. Dell could have cut down the baggage a bit. Leaner is better these days.

The bottom of the phone sports a slot for microUSB along with speaker and microphone.The right side boasts of a volume regulator as well as a dual-action camera button. The left side has a smooth chrome strip.

Dell Venue Display

Moving on to the screen, we really appreciate the effort that the makers have put in. The 4.1 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display is truly a turn-on. The tube shows 16 million colors at a 480 X 800 pixel resolution. The Gorilla glass display is equipped with Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor and Proximity sensor. Needless to say, how good watching images and videos on this baby are? We enjoyed a lot of YouTube videos and movies on the Pro, but later to that.

Push up the display and a keyboard is displayed from beneath. The external keyboard is a solid one and you will love using it. The keys are light to touch and we did not have any problem using them. The buttons are well spaced out which further adds to the ease of user experience.

The on-screen keyboard is a nice one too. The display keys are smooth and react fast to touch. The QWERTY keyboard works well in Portrait as well as Landscape mode.

Dell Venue Hardware

The Dell Venue internals are not too great. The 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU is a power device for sure but it is pretty standard these days. If you have handled a Qualcomm-loaded phone earlier, you need not be told how smooth the operations are. Despite extended usage, the phone hardly dragged.

The Venue is powered by a 256 MB RAM. The on-board memory features a massive storage capability. Your storage experience will differ depending upon which set you buy – the 8 or 16 GB one. All this is pretty good but would have like a memory card support which this phone sadly lacks. Compare this with the 32 GB memory capacity that many top brands are offering nowadays and you will understand where the Venue falls short.

Dell Venue Software’s and Widgets

The highlight of Dell Venue is the Windows 7 OS. Yes, Venue is one of the few Windows operated phones in the market. The OS installs fast and performs great on the Pro, as you can imagine. That also means that the apps run quite fast on the Venue. We compared the baby with other Windows models like the Nexus S and the Samsung Focus and it came on tops again and again. While it beat Nexus S in surfing speed, it humbled Focus in the speed of launching apps.

Talking about softwares, we must tell you that your app experience may vary with who you are getting your set from. We got our Pro from T-Mobile. That did not help much considering the ho-hum pad and free apps we got. The on-board apps in the phone consist of MS Office, XBox Live and the like. The Office suite lets you view, edit and create documents. XBox Live helps you while playing games on your handset.

Dell Venue Connectivity

Infrared Facility is missing here, as with most other smartphones in the market. Barring that, the Dell Venue does not give you a reason for complaint. There is the usual GPRS, EDGE, 3G and WiFi for all your surfing needs. Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 take care of the phone-to-phone or phone-to-PC sync requirements.

Web-browsing is a terrifying experience in many smartphones. Fortunately, the Dell Venue offers a terrific one. It would not be wrong to say that the set creates a benchmark with the smooth browsing feel that it provides. We especially loved the Internet Explorer experience which is going to be much appreciated. All texts and images are displayed neatly and the big screen size further helps matters. The Landscape mode gives you a mini-laptop feel and in spite of the lack of the Opera Mini tab or pinch-to-zoom features, browsing rocks on the Venue.

Social networkers will love this phone. Facebook, Twitter and Myspace comes alive on the Venue thanks to the large, bright display and colorful screen.

Dell Venue Features

The Dell Venue sports some cool features worthy of a smartphone. We have mentioned the sensors but the display also scores with e-compass, ambient light-sensor and GPS. Talking about the other features, we need to give you a lowdown on the multimedia capabilities of the Pro.

Dell Venue Multimedia

The Venue multimedia power cannot be described in superlative terms but it is enough to draw lots of “oohs” and “aahs” from the guys and gals on the street. Here is why.

Dell Venue Camera Performance

The Pro camera is not the best or anywhere close to it, but it can be appreciated. The 5MP camera shoots videos in 720 p quality and yes, there is HD support for you. Videos come pretty decent on the Dell Venue Pro. No it is not as good as the iPhone but then it is not too bad either. Do not be too critical and you will love the Dell Venue video quality. The set supports a variety of formats like H.263, H.264, MPEG4, 3GP, WMV and VC-1. The Dell Venue YouTube Videos are also nice. We spent hours watching our favorite videos on the handset.

Images can be shot at a neat 2592?1944 pixel resolution! Try shooting in low-light situations and the result will be very unsatisfactory. We tried it in our garage and what came was dark and blurry. But take it outdoors or even in well-lit surroundings and you will simply love it.

The 5 MP thingy comes with LED flash, auto-focus and Geo-tagging capabilities which are fair enough by today’s standards.

Dell Venue Audio Performance

The audio quality is loud and clear enough. Playing music is a pleasure on the Venue. The bass quality of the speaker is stunning and one of the best that we have come across in recent times. Venue is friendly with a number of music file formats like MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA and AMR. With headsets, you can enjoy an even better listening experience.
There is also an inbuilt radio with RDS that will let you listen to your favorite radio stations.

Dell Venue Basic Performance

As far as basic functionalities go, Venue Pro is up there at the top. The basic operations are super fast thanks to the Windows 7 OS running this set. The call quality is excellent and we did not have any “dropped call” experience.

Dell Venue Accessories

The in-box contents for Dell Venue Pro feature standard items. There is a Dell Venue Pro manual that provides users with quick reference to some of the key features of the phone. You can also get useful information related to phone setup.
The other items include a Dell Venue Pro Headset, a Dell Venue Pro charger and a Dell Venue Pro USB cable that can be used for both syncing and charging the phone.

Dell Venue Battery Performance

The handset is loaded with a 3.7 v, 1,400 mAh Lithium Ion Battery. With heavy usage, we got a 6 1/2 hour talk time. Pretty nice, the Dell Venue battery life, but could have been better we say.

Dell Venue Price

Dell Venue smartphone costs around $549 in the US. Dell Venue UK price is somewhere around £445 or 500 Euros. Dell Venue price in India is Rs. 25,500.

Dell Venue Carriers

You can get Dell Venue on AT&T and T-Mobile.

Dell Venue Launch Date

Dell Venue release date in the US was 9th December, 2010.

All that boils down to whether or not you will go for this phone. As the Dell Venue cost suggests, this one is for roomy pockets. Dell Venue buyers will also have to make do with some average stuff like the camera and battery. But the killer looks, Windows OS and audio capabilities are strong factors that push the phone and how! If you love changing phones or want to buy a Windows powered device, you can go for this one.

A first glance at Dell Streak raises a question in your mind as to whether this phone is a a tablet or a smart phone? Well, at the first glance it may not be quite clear as to what it is, but we guess after going through the features and functionalities of the phone, you may yourself find out the answer.

Dell Streak Design and Look

Well, the 5″ TFT capacitive touch screen of Dell Streak makes you feel as to whether it is a tablet device in disguise of a smart phone or vice-versa. The 5″ TFT capacitive touch screen makes reading of 480 x 800 pixels clear and sound. The phone measures 152.9 x 79.1 x 10 mm and slips easily into pocket.

At the same time it is quite bulky weighing 220 grams. The sheer weight of the phone makes reminds you as to where you have kept it. Large size of the touch screen gives you the freedom to do more than what you can do on other smart phones. It allows one to better surf web, read e-mails with more clarity and also watch video along with reading e books.

The colors are fantastic and since the screen offers a large number of viewing angles so two people can easily sit and watch a movie. Streak does not own a physical keyboard, but the large display gives ample room for where punctuation marks have own keys which allows better texting and e-mailing.

The model has been designed in a manner whereby maximum number of features can be used in the landscape mode. However, a lot of features can also be used in the portrait mode. The Home, Menu and Back buttons which was most frequently used in devices run on Android platform are on the touch screen itself. The power button, camera button, 3.5 mm jack etc is located on the right side of the portrait mode while the data and the power port is located at the bottom. Steak also comes with a cable with which you can connect the device with your PC

Dell Streak Features

Dell Streak boasts of some stunning features which makes it quite stylish. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor and has Android OS 1.6 which can be upgraded to Android 2.2 (Froyo). This combination gives the phone a robust performance.  The phone boasts of internal memory storage of 16 GB which allows one to practically store unlimited entries and call records. Keeping in mind that memory of any phone plays a vital role, there is a microSD card slot which allows you to extend it to a whopping 32 GB.

The music player of the device is pretty good which allows you to create playlist and the device is equipped to orchestrate all the music and video files with media player. Sound format supported are MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, Midi, WAV among others. Streak also has a light version of Quick Office via which you can view PDF, Word, Excel and Power-point files. However, one of the hitches in the phone is that it lacks radio.

Dell Streak Camera Performance

Camera performance for any smart phone is of paramount importance. Streak comes with a 5 mega-pixel auto focus camera which can shoot images at up to 2592×1944 pixels. The camera is equipped with a dual LED flash and has Geo-tagging facilities. There is also a VGA camera which supports video chat applications such as Fring and Qik. One can record video at 20fps. The device also has a set of tools via which you can edit the images. With these tools you can crop, re-size, sharpen and make other necessary changes in the image.

Dell Streak Connectivity

In the modern age, seamless internet connectivity associated with any smart phone plays a vital role in its selling. Dell Steak doesn’t let you down on this front and ensures seamless internet connection anywhere you go. There is support for Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots) and Class 12 EDGE. There is no infrared port in the phone, but it has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile. The phone also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connectivity and 3G.

Dell Streak Battery

The battery performance of the phone is quite decent. Streak comes with a Li-Ion 1530 mAh standard battery which gives a talk time up to 8 hours and a standby time up to 300 hours.

Dell Streak Price

Streak is available for around Rs 30K in India while the price in UK is approximately £449. Price in the US is approximately $ 299 with 2 year AT&T contract and $ 599 without.

Final Say

Well going by the size of the phone one can understand that Dell Streak isn’t meant for everyone. As said earlier that it is basically how one views the device, whether it is a smart phone or a tablet. If you are smartphone users trying to get too much on a small screen, then you must try out this phone. And if you want to carry a small tablet in your pocket then also you can use it.