On Dell's Direct2Dell
blog, company executives offered a few teaser details and clarifications
about the Dell Streak, its tablet device that's scheduled
to launch this week for $500.
Ron Garriques, president of Dell's Communications Solutions business, has
suggested that Dell may partner with a wireless carrier to offer the Streak,
and in a July 26 post, Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca reduced the guesswork by
one.
"We do not have plans for supporting T-Mobile's 3G network,"
Menchaca wrote. "Dell Streak will not be certified for T-Mobile operation
overall."
He also clarified that the Streak will ship running Version 1.6 of Google's
Android OS, but will upgrade to Version 2.2., known as Froyo, through an
over-the-air update later in the year.
Lastly, Menchaca offered some non-news on the color options. The Streak is
currently available in a color called carbon, through the U.K.
carrier 02, and will likely launch in carbon in the United
States. A spiffy cherry red version "will
be coming soon," Menchaca wrote, though adding that he didn't have an ETA.
In a video linked to Menchaca's site, Kevin Andrew, with the Streak
development team, also unhelpfully described the cherry red version as arriving
"shortly thereafter" the Carbon Streak's launch.
To
view images of the Dell Streak, click here.
Via Twitter, Menchaca has previously shared that accessories for the Streak
will be through Dell's presale offer—which he added has been Dell's most
successful such offer to date. Presale customers will also be able to upgrade
from second-day shipping to next-day shipping, and will receive a coupon code
entitling them to a Plantronics Bluetooth headset for just 99 cents.
With its cellular capabilities and 5-inch capacitive multitouch display, the
Streak straddles several form factors—is it a big smartphone or a small tablet?
For example, the display on the Apple iPad—which, by reinventing the form
factor, entirely created the market for such devices—is nearly twice the size
at 9.7 inches.
Analysts
have suggested that the Streak's unusual size—a bit too big to be a "pocketable"
smartphone but too small for an in-home tablet experience—may limit its appeal
to consumers. However, unlike Apple's flying-off-the-shelves iPad, the Streak
includes a cellular radio, a Webcam and support for Adobe's Flash technology.
Additional features will include a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm,
WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, and support for UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System), GPRS and EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution)
networks, plus HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) speeds of up to 7.2M bps.
With the calendar running out on July, the question of how consumers receive
the Streak will soon be answered. Garriques,
for one, finds the Streak's "sweet spot" between a smartphone and
tablet to be to its advantage. In a May statement introducing the device,
he offered, "Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect
and navigate their lives."
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