Dell's Kevin Andrew answered a few questions about the
Streak in a new "vlog" on YouTube, and it's a mixture of encouragement and confusion. On the good side, Kevin showed off Android 2.1 up and running on the phone / tablet / lady-killer. It looks just like 2.1, of course, but with Dell's customizations still riding atop it. Oddly, while showing off 2.1, Kevin reassures us that Dell is still planning to go to Froyo (2.2), which is reiterated by the text below the video, with no clarification if 2.1 will actually be released as an intermediate measure. Either way we don't have a timeline, which is pretty much the same tune we hear with every Android handset. In other news, Dell is planning to launch the cherry red version of the streak "shortly" after the international launch of the graphite model -- which might be as soon as tomorrow (Dell's site still says "late July," but they just wrapped up a 24 hour pre-sale and said to check back tomorrow, possibly just for more pre-sales). Check out the video after the break.
[Thanks, James H.]
Update: Matt at Dell (conveniently tweeting under the pseudonym @mattatdell) has clarified that the Streak is
not going to be released this week. That seems odd, since that vague "late July" window ends this week, but hopefully we'll know more soon.
Update 2: Check out our
preview over at Engadget Mobile.
posted July 27th 2010 10:19AM
launch it...........................
launch it NOW
I just can't get into this product at all. Not just because of the horrid release by Dell, but just the phone itself. A big screen is nice, but I think it looked downright goofy when the Engadget staff was holding it up to his ear. I'm glad some folks like it, though. Hopefully Dell will stop stringing them along and, you know, let them actually PURCHASE the thing. lol.
Gimme now!!!!!
When I think of Dell, I think of Mr. Andross from StarFox 64 plopping his flabby ears.
Wait, so they actually e-mailed the pre-order opp already? Jesus, Dell can't even handle selling their device properly, after horribly blowing the marketing at every step.
Not happy about this. May end up with the Evo.
They wrapped up the pre-sale? I didn't get an email or a text as promised.
The thunder or lightning, prob. the android version will be my next phone.
Have 3GS and the iPhone 4 is not what i expected from Apple ( sollid and without flaws).
I hope Dell get things straight right from the first time. Looks promising.
Dude you're getting a Dell!
I'm not finding anywhere else that says the pre sale happened already.
Suspect that bit of info may be inaccurate???
I really wish I understood the massive, bizarre delays in launching a top-notch android tablet.
Here on Engadget, the writers constantly refer to the 'glut' of Android tablets. However, as far as I can tell, the few Android tablets that are shipping are pretty low-end devices from off-brand manufacturers. Someone has really dropped the ball here. There are so many of us who would love to buy a 7-10 inch Android tablet with specs that will make it compatible with current and (minimally near-)future versions of Android. What's with all the el-cheapo tablets with resistive screens, 128 MB RAM, 500 MHz processors, wimpy batteries, and year-old versions of the OS? Even if lots of people wanted underpowered Android tablets, doesn't even one manufacturer realize that lots of us want an Android tablet with performance on par with the iPad and that we care much, much more about having them _now_ than about having them loaded with a bunch of proprietary vendor bloatware and skins?
I am far, far from an Apple fanboy. I have never owned an Apple product in my life. But I am starting to get some pretty gloomy feelings about the prospects of ever getting a high-performing stock Android tablet. I can't believe that Dell is hyping the fact that they have finally managed to get the version of their tablet which does not run on North American networks to run a slightly less outdated version of Android than the one it shipped with! I'm starting to think it's time to consider an iPad. Am I wrong?
@Anax
+1
@Anax I blame NVidia. It seems like every decent tablet that's been announced has been Tegra 2 based, and all the crap that's flooded the market has been Rockchip or VIA.
@Anax I don't think you're wrong. As much as people hate on Apple, the iPad is a very solid, stable, and all around nice product. Soon it will have multitasking as well. I absolutely love mine, just for surfing the web in a convenient way anywhere in the house, and to use as a Netflix machine, lol.
I agree completely that Android tablets have been absolutely awful. Resistive screens? Low amounts of RAM? Come on... These are an embarrassment to an amazing OS. I'd like to see a high quality build before the next iteration of the iPad, which if Apple sticks to their normal type of schedule, will come around January-ish.
+1 to your comment, quite well-stated.
@Ambient80 Yes, it's the "stability" of the iPad ecosystem that seems to be the real coup for Apple. Everyone knows when they buy an iPad that it will run iOS exactly the way iOS was intended to be run. They also know that Apple will do their best to ensure that future versions of iOS are compatible with existing iPads, at least until they figure people have owned their iPads long enough that they might be willing to consider shelling out for newer hardware. I thought that maybe the Nexus brand would be the equivalent for Android, running Android exactly as it was meant to be run. Apparently that experiment didn't work out well enough for Google to continue it. But I am surprised that Google is happy to have their amazing OS shoehorned into so many crappy devices. It's going to seriously screw up their brand.
The Apple approach of ensuring some kind of consistency and upgrade-ability has been entirely lacking in the Android tablet arena. Virtually all of the tablets that have been released (and perhaps all of them) lack the specs that Google has said will be required for Android 3.0, which won't be long in arriving.
Being all enthusiastic about Android, I bought a G1 almost as soon as they were released in Canada. It's a great phone. The problem is that, almost as soon as I bought it, Google/Rogers/HTC decided it wasn't up to snuff and couldn't be upgraded. So now I'm starting to run into the problem that, less than a year after I bought it this phone on a three-year contract, newer Android apps won't run on it. I can't run the Kobo app, which locks me out of the major Canadian distributor of ebooks.
I can see this exact same problem already abundantly apparent in the Android tablet market. Best of luck to those of you who buy the Augens/aPads/Moonies of the Android tablet family. You'll be locked into an old version of Android very soon and unable to run current apps. Someone needs to show some leadership and fix this problem with the Android ecosystem.
@Ambient80 Same here. Surfing the web and Netfilx. And I use it to show my photography to current and potential customers. Amazing how easy it is to impress the average person. They swipe the photos and are blown away. Haha.
Anway, more on topic... I really do hope that some big brand comes up with a competing Android tablet, not because I'll buy it - I'm too far invested in ipad apps - but because it will make Apple make the next one better. High-end Android tablets NOW!
@Anax One thing holding up the process is that Android isn't ready for tablets yet. A lot of people keep repeating about how the iPad is "just a big iPod Touch", which feeds into the belief that you can just slap a phone OS into a tablet and be done with it. But in fact, Apple has done a lot of work on iOS specifically to make it usable in a tablet format (they even branched it for the first iPad). The way the view controller stack and view navigation works is totally different on an iPhone and on an iPad. On iPad you get split views and popover views which would not work in a phone format. Other changes include results list button, modal view display, toolbars can be in different locations, custom edit menu items, and customizable keyboard with custom input accessories. Android will probably implement most of these things, and maybe some additional things, and will have to test them on a far wider array of hardware than Apple.
As long as the Dell Streak performs better than my old Archos IT 32GB tablet I'll be happy.
nice tablet :)
Funny it's too small to be a viable "tablet" but too big to be a phone, well it is almost the same size as a X ... haha. What a fail on market research.
Does anybody know if there is a wi-fi only version of the Streak. Contracts suck, plus i have the evo w/ the hot spot so don't need a contract version.
@RCstyle I do not believe one is available, although I could be wrong.
@RCstyle
Wouldn't a WiFi only version break Google's requirements for such a device? This thing needs to be disguised as a phone it seems to get official support (Google Market etc).
@RCstyle
What is the point of selling a wifi only version when you can buy it unlocked direct from dell?
@zboot true, didn't think about that one, thanks
I am hoping Dell surprises everyone with releasing Dell Streak with Android 2.1 as stock... Wud luv to see the expressions on the UK owners :P
@ravisharma
Their expressions as their phones update to 2.1?
Nice phone but it's the size of a PSP...
When these new phones start shipping with STOCK Froyo , I `ll be interested. None of these shells or 2.1
Gimped bt ATT...No thanks.
I love my Droid because it is stock...no shells or gimping.
Also , apps will be like 3x faster when FROYO hits.
I don`t care for the X due to the MOTO crap on there.
Leave the damn thing alone !
Nice showing us the older OS again, thank you.
I like big ass screens
Does it really matter what OS version it uses if the dang thing is not available for those in the US who are having a conniption fit over its sale/release date? (tmo please)
:-P
I sometimes make Skype calls on my iPad and just for fun, I'll put the iPad against my head. I look like an idiot, of course. I can't help wonder how someone looks with a five inch slab on your face.
I was upset to see that Dell had "wrapped up" it's 24 hour presale since I didn't receive any notice either. So I took a look at gizmodo's coverage of this story and it looks like the presale sign up page was replaced by a presale no longer available page. Now the presale sign up page is back up. This is probably why Engadget thought the presale was over. Probably some one at Dell put up the page early. Is anyone surprised that someone at Dell could screw up this launch even worse than it has been screwed up?
@Oski
The presale has never happened. How is it that people didn't actually read anything?
You signed up for the presale. That means when the presale begins, you will get an email with a link giving you access to the presale so you can buy the Dell Streak.
The reason for the confusion was that Dell's presale signup page earlier today changed to indicate that the presale signup was over and that the Streak would be available for purchase (via presale) tomorrow. Apparently the page transition was on a timer which they forgot to change after deciding to further delay the release.
So, to wrap up:
1. Presale has NOT occurred
2. You signed up to be notified when the presale begins. If you have not gotten a notification, probably means presale has not begun.
3. Presale signup page snafu made it seem like the Streak would be available for sale tomorrow - they've since fixed that issue.
4. Dell Streak is no longer being released "in late July". Try early August.
@zboot
Isn't that what I wrote?
Seeing how well Dell supported their other mobile devices (not) like the Axim it would be difficult to considering buying this device, as cool as it looks.
Shame really.
What the hell is the matter with Dell?
Is marketing and selling this device being farmed out to a High School class?
I guess if Google hired all the smartest guys in the room, Dell had to recruit from the local High Schools in Round Rock...
So let's see:
A device shown months ago is still not available
Marketing done by morons online
Old as crap version of Android
Likely loaded up with ATT bloatware
Not available for TMobile US in 3G
I've been excited about this device, but I'm getting pretty tired of the miserable job Dell is doing getting this unit to the US market.
To all commenting about not seeing any info on the presale.
1. The Engadget article is incorrect (another example of someone who only skimmed the page or didn't confrim any info). What happened was the presale signup page switched to saying that signup was closed and the presale will begin tomorrow. This was likely because the presale (which people have been signing up for and can continue to do so) was originally scheduled for Wednesday. Dell has since rectified this issue.
So, no presale ever occurred. What was "wrapped up" was the presale signup - which in fact is not wrapped up since the release date has been extended yet again into August.
They left out a lot of pertinent crap. The video was too brief.
* 2.1 is added. So are all the features there or did you omit some?
* Are they updating the flat phone screen?
* Only AT&T? Samsung and HTC beat you by adding all carriers!
* Dell vs Apple - Pfft. Dell vs HTC! Dell vs Samsung! They're already out and can run circles around Dell on a racetrack!
* If they keep adding on to the waiting game, it won't be out until 2011.
@JosephZ
Your questions are strange:
* 2.1 is added. So are all the features there or did you omit some?
All the features of what? Android 2.1 or the custom Dell UI? According to the video, everything "custom" about the Dell UI is still there. In any
* Are they updating the flat phone screen?
To a curved phone screen? What is this supposed to mean? Resolution? The hardware is fixed. That is not changing with an OS/UI update.
I think the issue is Dell might be relying too heavily on comments from tech blogs to launch this thing. My guess is internal debate has pushed the launch to at least get 2.1 on the released version. Why else would Kevin tease us with 2.1?
And to all the comments about how Dell has failed here, it doesn't seem like there is a lack of interest in a device that could launch with 1.6. There is enough interest to seriousely push what was a planned July release.
I hope they fix the custom UI they built if this gets to Froyo. It looked a bit unfinished and like they didnt try hard enough. The hardware looks great, would get this if it were on ATT.
LOVE the update about "Matt At Dell" and the closing "late July" window...this light snarkiness is part of what makes Engadget such a fun blog to read...thanks, editors! :-)
$299.99 with AT&T
$549.99 unlocked
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/07/27/dell-streak-pre-sale-details-for-us-customers.aspx
GAME CHANGER.
Dell have invented the 5 inch tablet.
Yadda yadda.
Oh good lord, really? That interface is total crap! Wow, I really can't understand how people get excited about garbage like this. I mean if you love it, more power to you, but it's just a bunch of buttons randomly sprinkled on the screen and with the glowing Tron dots racing around in the background it hurts to look at. It's the "the more stuff we put on screen, the more exciting it will be!" school of design, just not my thing.
And Engadget...WORST CAMERAWORK EVER.
Well, ive got one. Its good and at the moment im seeing it for the hardware. The bit i found funny was on one of the video's the dell guy said "thanks for all of your comments, we really appreciate the feedback" - eh, the forums im on have been using some pretty colorful language so i dont know where he's getting his info from....so, echoing what everyone else is saying....FROYO - now! - not in september or whenever, NOW!. I heard that they got 8 engineers working on it. Dell, a company of gigantic size has dedicated 8 engineers to a first time product that they want to sell boat loads of has an OS version that is ancient. How about stopping churning out fifty different optiplex's this month and concentrate on this!!. Better still just release what you have and hand over support to XDAdevs - i think they'll do a better job. Mr Dell, if youre reading this i have a Dell Streak in my left hand and a Rooted Nexus one with Cyanogen running on it in the right (at the moment the better device).....pull your finger out or the Streak hits ebay....