The 4G-enabled Dell Streak 7 tablet will reportedly arrive on the T-Mobile network Feb. 2 for $200, or for $450 without a contract.
The 7-inch
Dell Streak will be available on the T-Mobile network starting Feb. 2,
according to a report from Electronista. It'll reportedly be priced at $200
with a two-year contract (and after a $50 rebate) or $450 without a contract
and for use with a prepaid data plan.
"As tablets
change the way we consume content, T-Mobile's combination of 4G speeds, breadth
of our 4G network, our affordable data plans and compelling new products like
the Streak 7 place us in a position to offer the best experience and value for
our customers," Cole Brodman, CMO of T-Mobile USA, said in a Jan. 6 statement,
when the wireless provider and Dell introduced the Streak 7 at the 2011 Consumer
Electronics Show.
The Streak 7
measures 7.87 x 4.72 x 0.49 inches and features, as the name implies, a 7-inch
WVGA touch-screen display with Gorilla Glass (like the iPhone 4 and other
smartphones use). At this popular size, it's likely to give Dell a second swing
at the tablet market, after the lukewarm reception of its original Streak. That
device featured a 5-inch display-as well as cellular connectivity, unlike most
of its tablet competitors-and was roundly criticized as being too small for
popular tablet purposes but too big for use as a smartphone.
The Streak 7
comes packed with features that, as has been well documented, are missing from
the Apple iPad (which is the clear device to beat, and accounted for 75
percent of all tablet sales during the fourth quarter of 2010). Specifically,
the Streak 7 supports Adobe's Flash player, has an SD card slot for expanding
the device's memory and features two cameras, a rear-facing 5-megapixel model
and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel for video chatting. The latter is further
facilitated with the integration of a Qik Video Chat application, which lets
users place video calls over T-Mobile's 4G HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet
Access) network or WiFi, and additionally enables users to include the view
from the tablet's rear-facing camera in their video call, if desired.
The Streak 7
runs Android 2.2, known as "Froyo," plus a 1GHz, dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2
processor. It supports Microsoft Exchange e-mail, contacts and calendar, as
well as Short Message Service and Multimedia Messaging Service and a Swype
virtual keyboard, which is said to make for quicker text input. It comes with
16GB of internal memory, and its SD card slot can support up 32GB more.
In early
November, T-Mobile began advertising that its 4G network, which is based on
HSPA+ technology, offers speeds that are competitive with WiMAX and LTE
(Long-Term Evolution) networks. Still, on Jan. 7, the carrier announced that it
will speed things up even more, with its HSPA+ network download speeds planned
to soon increase to 42M bps, double what it previously advertised.
The carrier,
which has had to compete with the iPhone-offering AT&T, as well as
Verizon's coming launch of an iPhone 4, has seen customer growth slow over the
last few years. Looking to turn things around, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm told members of the press during a
Jan. 20 presentation in New York that T-Mobile plans to offer the "best" data plan
and the "best" fourth-generation network.
The Dell
Streak 7 is part of T-Mobile's expanding portfolio of 4G-enabled devices, which
include the myTouch 4G and T-Mobile G2, both of which also run the Android
operating system.
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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