Dell Mini 5 / Streak prototype impressions
By Richard Lai 
posted February 19th 2010 12:16PM
posted February 19th 2010 12:16PM
Let's start with the basics: the main specs on our unit include Android 1.6 (which will definitely be obsolete for the final product), five-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, Snapdragon QSD8250 chipset (with CPU clocked at 1GHz), Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and WCDMA radio. Sadly, we have no info on whether the Mini 5 will have other cellular radio options, but it wouldn't hurt to send Dell a petition regarding this matter. For those who want the dimensions and weight in numbers, it's about 152mm x 78mm x 10mm at 8 ounces (including the battery, which lasts for almost a day for normal usage on 3G). Memory-wise there's 405MB RAM and 1.63GB of internal storage -- a slight let-down for the latter, so let's hope the retail unit will be given a more generous dose of silicon. You can add a microSD card next to the battery on the back, but it appears that the mysterious second card slot we saw in the earlier teardown only gave us false hope -- we couldn't find a way to get to it without prying open the housing. Connection to your computer relies on a proprietary port -- similar but slightly larger than the iPod's -- to USB cable, which may suggest that we will see some more peripherals made for the Mini 5 and its future siblings.
Software, buttons and keyboard
We won't bore you with a full list of preinstalled Android apps on our Mini 5, but there are indeed a few that are worth mentioning: the usual bundle including Google Mail, YouTube, Amazon MP3, WebKit browser (with pinch-to-zoom but no Flash support), Google Maps (no pinch-to-zoom, boo!), K-9 Mail (which supports Exchange server) and Quickoffice (a file browser that can also view Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents). For multimedia there's the standard Android music app, a Gallery app by ArcSoft (pinch-to-zoom supported), and a three-year trial of the forthcoming CyberLink Live for Android that gives you "instant access to your photos, music, and video stored on your home computers." There's no social networking integration (like MOTOBLUR and Sense) as such, but you can use the preloaded Meebo IM for chatting on AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, etc. If you want to be discrete about your gigantic phone, you may find the Voice Control app by Nuance handy for voice-dialing -- it can be triggered by holding down the button on the bundled handsfree earphones.
Many of the apps support both portrait and landscape modes, although landscape mode only works one way (with the dock connector pointing downwards). This is actually pretty neat for those who like to read in portrait mode while lying in bed, but you'll have to get used to leaning on your right side of your body for this. The dialer app -- as pictured above -- is only available in portrait mode and does look like work in progress, plus we haven't found a way to initiate or receive video calls, leaving the front-facing 640 x 480 camera pretty useless except for some casual self-portraits. Hopefully the final software build will have these fixed. As for normal phone calls we've found voice quality on both ends to be satisfactory.
Going back to the homescreen, we see that Dell's done some skinning -- the top bar houses a button for triggering the apps menu (unlike the traditional pull-up menu on most other Android devices), along with a homescreen switcher button and notifications button. The shortcut icons are contained in shaded grey squares. Only a couple of widgets got our attention: Power Control allows us to quickly change the screen brightness and turn on / off various wireless connections, while the cute TasKiller widgets let us kill apps one by one or all in one go. The widgets for Twitter, Facebook and RSS are useful, but like those on other Android phones, they still lack options for refresh rates. Any chance that we can have enhanced versions, Dell?
Going back to the homescreen, we see that Dell's done some skinning -- the top bar houses a button for triggering the apps menu (unlike the traditional pull-up menu on most other Android devices), along with a homescreen switcher button and notifications button. The shortcut icons are contained in shaded grey squares. Only a couple of widgets got our attention: Power Control allows us to quickly change the screen brightness and turn on / off various wireless connections, while the cute TasKiller widgets let us kill apps one by one or all in one go. The widgets for Twitter, Facebook and RSS are useful, but like those on other Android phones, they still lack options for refresh rates. Any chance that we can have enhanced versions, Dell?
The only physical buttons on the Mini 5 all reside on the top edge (when held as pictured above). Starting from the left we have a 3.5mm headphone jack, followed by buttons for volume, power and camera (which has two stages: focus and then capture). On the right of screen there are three touch-sensitive buttons with haptic feedback: back, menu and home. Like other Android phones, the on-screen keyboard can be triggered by holding down the menu button, and as you can see above, the landscape version has a numpad that you may or may not like -- frankly, the keyboard offset is pretty annoying since we need to stretch our right thumb across the numpad for handheld typing, plus the keys could've been bigger if the numpad wasn't there. We think those two factors are to be blamed for our constant typos, so a numpad-less option would totally make our day. That said, when the phone's placed on the desk, we typed better on the landscape keyboard using our index fingers. Similarly, the portrait keyboard performed better with our thumbs while we held the device.
Multimedia experience
Given the MID form factor and that gorgeous five-inch screen, we immediately loaded a few MP4 videos of various resolutions (1080p, 720p and 480p) to see what the Mini 5 could take. Annoyingly, our Mini 5's default video player could only handle MP4V video codec, so we had to convert our test videos, including the MP4 files that were compiled by iMovie (which encodes in H.264). On the contrary, Carrypad's heard from Dell at MWC that the final product will support "H.264 and other codecs." Even then, the device failed to open our 1080p files, but that's not the end of the world considering 720p is already plentiful for the 800 x 480 screen -- we had a 7Mbps 720p video playing smoothly with just the odd stutter. On a similar matter, the preloaded YouTube app performed nicely for us, except for the lack of higher quality playback options to make full use of the large screen.
Moving on to audio: the Mini 5 has a mono speaker on the back that sounds loud and surprisingly clear, but naturally, the bundled earphones sound even better -- we'd scale it to somewhere between the levels of the iPod buds and Apple's in-ear headphones. Fans of stereo Bluetooth headphones will be pleased to know that our Mini 5 supports A2DP and AVRCP, which are particularly useful for devices of such size.
The main camera offers five-megapixel pictures of reasonable quality, along with decent 640 x 480 video capture but with slight rolling shutter effect (aka "jelly motion"). The accompanying camera app has a wealth of settings for both modes: scene, white balance, brightness, contrast, and resolution. Extra settings for photo mode include flash, self-timer, multi-shot, shutter sound, GPS location and flicker adjustment, whereas video mode has options for video format (MPEG-4 and H.263). Both support digital zoom of up to 4x. Once a picture is taken, you get a three-second preview along with options to edit, send, set as wallpaper / contact icon and delete. You get the same options by accessing the photos on the left-hand bar. In edit mode you can rotate, crop, adjust colors, draw, resize and add various goodies (effects, frames, text and clipart). Thankfully, there are undo and redo buttons, too.
Here are a couple of videos and some photos captured by the five-megapixel camera:
Comfort
Understandably, most people are concerned about whether this 5-inch tablet would fit inside their pocket. We're happy to tell you that it snuggled nicely in our jeans' pockets, which is most likely to do with the device's sensible thickness and our lack of tight pants. Apart from the slight exposure (as pictured below) and the occasional struggle when walking up stairs, we've had no other issues with pocketing our Mini 5. A more popular concern would be whether you'd look like a dork when holding the monstrous phone right next to your face. To be honest, it's not too bad, except the user would most likely be more concious about the size, simply because you'd have to stretch your fingers a bit to accommodate the unusually large footprint and weight -- you can see the size better demoed in the earlier walkthrough video. Just keep that to yourself and you'll be fine -- so far most blokes who've seen and touched our Mini 5 have said they want one, so this phone is already quite the masculine symbol. And yes, the phone makes a great tool for chatting up the ladies, too (although they've all said it's too big and heavy after playing with it; perhaps the Mini 3 will strike their fancy?).
Wrap-up
Dell may not be the first to forage into the scene of oversized smartphones (see HTC Advantage and HTC Universal), but it looks like the combination of Android, Snapdragon, 3G affordability and resurrection of the tablet trend may give the Mini 5 a great potential. We found the five-inch form factor to be neither too big nor too small, perfect for browsing the web, watching videos (watch out, Archos 5!), car navigation and reading ebooks on the go. Even the battery life matches most current 3G phones, despite the larger screen and faster CPU.
Woo hoo!! Finally
@TsaxmafiaReturns
Finally? This is like sticking a finger in an open wound! It's just painful to wait for it. Just launch it already!
@TsaxmafiaReturns
I can not keep this in my pocket, it is very impressive though.
@TsaxmafiaReturns now this is a true tablet, okay, but its cool isnt it?
@unwynd Are you kidding? It's awesome!
Add a lil internal storage and some skype video chat and I would wait in line for this like I did on iPhone launch day
I want it so bad! (sprint plz)
@TsaxmafiaReturns i'd be mad to say no!!!
@victor
Agree 100%.
I want this thing NOW. Give it to me !
@Plexus
What totally kills me is that at&t is dragging their feet on launching non-iphone smartphones (android, webOS, etc), probably so they can sort of wring out some more $$$ with apple.
On the flipside, dell has been teasing us with this for months...it seems like a brutal wait.
I'm itching to go back to Cupertino throw my single-tasking phone back at Stevie already.
@victor
Are you going to throw your iPhone or iPad?
Regardless, he wont know what hit him.
But will it run windows phone 7 series?
@victor
Are you trying to say that AT&T is holding out on making money to please Apple? I'm sorry but that just sounds dumb. If AT&T wanted to make Apple happy, they'd increase their 3G coverage and have tethering enabled already. Stop pointing your finger at AT&T and Apple, and just live with the fact that Dell probably just isn't ready to release it yet.
@TsaxmafiaReturns
Yeah, can't wait for my alpha-male gargantuan phone. Seriously.
@TsaxmafiaReturns After using that resolution on my Nexus One (3.7" display) I could see a bump in physical size as being useful. It would have been nice to see it use a 1280x720 resolution, because I love the sharpness of the N1 at 3.7", but this thing is going to kick ass when it finally ships.
@think before you react Which is why ATT will be releasing their first Android all the way in March? And a low-end one at that? Don't you think that if they weren't in Apple's pocket, thet would have jumped into the Android game WAY sooner, like everyone else?
That said, I really hope they get this device. I'd buy it in a second.
@BlackViper91
I don't see how Apple would affect money coming in if they have Android and WebOS phones. That's just making more and more money from selling those phones, new contracts, new data plans. And Apple probably asks for a large sum back to them.
AT&T is announcing their first Android phone on the home page of their website, they're not hiding it. It's got a whole page showing demos and videos and such of the phone. It's not their secret from the world.
Besides, althogth the backflip is a mid range Android phone, it;s the first of AT LEAST 5 to come by June this year. NOT INCLUDING the Dell Mini 5 which is a win for me, and I have no idea about the other HTC phones. IN fact the Nexus One is to come to AT&T and it's probably not even counted in the 5 for this first half.
Verizon has 2 Android phones on them with a couple coming. Sprint has like 3. You can be some what patient.
@broli Don't tell anyone: Dell Mini 4.
@TsaxmafiaReturns I don't know what with all the hype with this thing... It's basically a nexus one with a bigger form, but not so much bigger.
I'm not an Apple fanboy. I WILL NOT get the iPad until they put multitasking in it or there's a hack that enable multitasking for it (I believe there will be a hack since the iPhone or iTouch can do multitasking after jailbroken).
LOOK AGAIN: This thing has a 5" touch screen. It's too big for a phone. and too small for a netbook replacement. I don't know what kinds of weed people at Dell smoke when they design this thing?
WHY DON'T THEY MAKE IT 9"-10"? How the hell am I going to take note in my class with this 5" screen? Buy a bluetooth keyboard? NOT! Using my thumbs to type... NO thanks, I use my Nexus One.
Apple made the iPod Touch bigger... Nothing new yet it's big enough 9.7" touch screen, perfect for a netbook replacement. You can type on it with 10 fingers (which takes sometime to get use to).
This thing with 5" screen is a piece of useless shit. Yeah carry that big phone and put it on your face to answer the phone. You can get some attention from other nerds. Put in your pocket so people can see that you DO have a phone... and it's BIG. /facepalm
@broli Why would we want it to?! Android 2.1 or later, please!
How did engadget get a hold of a Chinese one? Can I?
@Electrofreak
It's almost certainly running 2.1 since dell have confirmed it'll be running something newer than 1.6 which leaves 2.0 (which wasn't out for long before 2.1 was so unlikely), 2.1 and 2.2/5/whatever
@TsaxmafiaReturns jesus christ it have a iphone connector on it!!!!!, look at the pictures and see for yourself. its probably make by foxconn.
i thinked that dell hate a little bit apple and their apple only hardware but this, i dont know what to think, i was sure it has a usb mini port or something else not this apple connector.
hope it will play on all ipod compatible devices....large enough
@freesets Like I said, the Mini 5's connector is NOT the same as the iPod dock connector!
@(Unverified) i see but you mean its impossible to fit a ipod connector in it? is there a mechanical safety stop witch prevents the ipod one witch is smaller to enter in the dock?
@freesets It won't fit. Full stop. They only *look* similar but are of different shapes and layouts.
@Richard Lai thanks but since you review it can you tell me 2 things that you did not mention there: is the capacitive touch panel made of glass or polycarbonate plastic?
and secondly how fast a site like engadget load on it?
@freesets We have no info in the screen surface material, but it's pretty hard to the touch. Website load demo at 6:35 in the first video.
That's a tight parking lot. Red car especially is hard to enter.
1.63 GB or internal storage?
Seems like quite an arbitrary number....
@r34p3r
and by "or", I mean "of"
GAH!
@r34p3r
probably 2gb - OS storage...
@r34p3r It's probably "2GB" (ie: ~1.86GB) and the other ~200MB dedicated to firmware or other system files.
@r34p3r
Its a prototype. Why would they need a large drive inside?
so can i just plug the mini5 into my existing ipod dock? u said it is not dissimilar so it would fit and work right???
@dark star No, they're just similar.
@Richard Lai hah
@dark star it'll fit, just push harder.
@Richard Lai
ok. thanks for the swift reply.
im kinda disappointed cause now i have to buy more accessories for this dell. wish all dock are universal
@Ducman69
hahaha. thats what she said!
@dark star Impossible -- Dell would never pay Apple for the dock licence fee.
@dark star LOL, I knew that was coming!
*looks at above sentence* oh crap.
@Ducman69 That's what she said...
@steel
Missed it by THAAAT much . . .
@Smart People Play Tuba
Yeah, two hours late isn't even that bad these days, what with this new fangled broadband and all...
@Richard Lai
the connector is a foolish idea - a mini USB3 and mini HDMI at one of the ends of the device would have been much better.
Wow, good news to hear that form factor actually works. Must say it would be pretty sweet to have a phone with a 5 inch screen.
@MONKEY I would LOVE a 5" screen. But I want it to fit in my pocket. I have an old Palm V pda hanging around from yesteryear - it's the exact same width and thickness and I used to carry that around with no complaints. BUT the Mini 5 is much longer, almost an inch and a half. This thing is 6" long. That's the real problem.
-
This concept would work but they simply need to shave the length by an inch. There is plenty of blank space on either end of the phone where the screen ends, where all they really need is a mic on one end and a speaker slot on the other. Chisel all that useless plastic away and get this thing down to 5" long and it would be a slam dunk.
@ArtInvent
I found an object (TI Calculator) that was the exact dimensions. Fits just right in my pocket. Almost forgot I had it in my pocket during school when I was trying it
Yay! The reviewer doesn't have 6 fingers!!!
It's nice to finally see a review on this amazing device, even if it IS just a prototype.
What I'm wondering is, how much should we expect the 3g/phone service to cost? I think o read somewhere that it would be $14.99/month? If that's true, this device will replace my current phone and my iPod touch (I have a Cowon S9).
I'd like to see flash support and a decent camera and I'm sold. Can't wait for this product to come out!!!