Hardware
Following the conventionally sized Mini 3 / Aero, Dell decided to plunge into an untouched territory with its second-ever smartphone. The result is an unusual form factor -- a 10mm-thick slab with a five-inch 800 x 480 LCD (much like the Archos 5 PMP but with capacitive touch overlay), and it's one damn good screen that's usable under the sun, too. Of course, we've seen it all back in February, but our enthusiasm has not dwindled in the slightest -- the final Streak still has the same sexy figure, is still as rigid, and is still as pocketable in our regular-fit jeans. No, really -- there's been a lot of debate on whether people would actually put the Streak in their pockets, but like we said before, as long as you're not into hippie-tight pants, the slate should happily fit in like a regular phone. The only time that you might struggle is when you're walking up stairs, but a quick push to the outer side of the pocket should do the trick. More on that in the video below.
Our four-month ownership of the prototype has proven that the Streak's quite the attention seeker, even before we revealed to the intrigued passers-by that it's also a phone. We even gave the screen's Gorilla Glass some real beating, although such toughness doesn't seem to extend to the plastic parts on the two sides of the phone -- we're already seeing some fine scratches there. But of course, the more important question is: is this form factor practical at all? Well, let's start with the grip -- the rounded edges on the two shorter sides allow us to hold it comfortably like a PSP. We can even hold the 220g (7.76 ounces) device single-handedly that way with little effort, but we tend to hold on the left to avoid accidentally touching the capacitive buttons on the other side. As for holding in portrait position (when making a phone call, for instance), the flat edges mean our finger tips can securely grip onto the phone. We don't have a preference for either posture, as it really depends on what you're doing -- obviously video playback is best in landscape, whereas web browsing can work both ways depending on the text layout, and e-book reading is ideal in portrait mode due to shorter lines. If you're all for making phone calls in a more discrete manner, you can always opt for the handsfree kit or a Bluetooth headset (2.0 with EDR) instead.
Apart from the three capacitive buttons (back, menu, and home) and a mic on the right, you'll find four physical buttons along the top ridge -- volume rocker, power, and camera (two-stage button i.e. press half-way to focus). The 3.5mm headphone jack is right next to the volume keys, which can be a nuisance if your headphones rock a straight plug. Luckily, the bundled handsfree kit -- with an L-shape plug -- has pretty impressive clarity and moderate bass, plus you get three sets of rubber buds to suit your ears. Other accessories include a USB mains adapter (with UK and EU plugs; the US will obviously get something else), USB cable (with clip), and a microfiber pouch (which doubles as a wiping cloth). Disappointingly, the gorgeous HDMI dock -- due to arrive in the UK over the next two weeks -- is not included, and Dell's still mum on pricing. Well, at least for now we can tease the company for the artwork blunder on the box -- the illustrator somehow assumed the screen does edge to edge. Ah, if only.
The Streak's battery life may well be impressive, but what about its performance as a phone? Pretty good, we'd say -- last night we made a 25-minute call with the Streak held against our face the whole time, and our hand and arm were still alive after that. We also did our usual noise test and the Streak managed to suppress a fair amount of background noise, as you can see in the video above. That said, we do have some minor complaints about the dialer, but we'll talk about that later.
Software
Well, here's the meat. Like we said earlier, this final firmware performs much smoother and is more stable than what we have on our prototype. Dell's also put on its own skin over the Android 1.6 OS -- homescreen icons are put in shaded boxes, the menu drops down from the top and can shrink to a favorites bar, and on the top bar you get a homescreen-switching button, notifications area, plus a status area, all of which can be triggered by just a tap instead of a drag action. Unlike most other Android phones, to remove a homescreen icon on the Streak you have to hold down on it until it goes red, and then press the menu button for the remove option (and some widgets, such as the RSS reader, will also show a "Widget options" button). This makes sense, as dragging an icon across a five-inch screen isn't really ideal.
As for the phone dialer, we're slightly disappointed that Dell's still using the same dull skin as seen on our prototype -- we have no issues with the dialpad layout, but the overall style just looks unfinished, plus we'd prefer to see the call log displaying pictures alongside contact numbers. Also, we're shocked that the Streak doesn't support smart-dialing, but then again we've only seen HTC offering this feature on its Android phones. Of course, provided that you're in a quiet environment, you can always just use voice search to get to a contact, and you get two options for this: the default voice search app, or the Nuance Voice Control app that can be launched by just holding down your handsfree kit's button. The latter can even take dictated numbers, although it never worked for us, and we suspect our British accent is to be blamed.
As for the phone dialer, we're slightly disappointed that Dell's still using the same dull skin as seen on our prototype -- we have no issues with the dialpad layout, but the overall style just looks unfinished, plus we'd prefer to see the call log displaying pictures alongside contact numbers. Also, we're shocked that the Streak doesn't support smart-dialing, but then again we've only seen HTC offering this feature on its Android phones. Of course, provided that you're in a quiet environment, you can always just use voice search to get to a contact, and you get two options for this: the default voice search app, or the Nuance Voice Control app that can be launched by just holding down your handsfree kit's button. The latter can even take dictated numbers, although it never worked for us, and we suspect our British accent is to be blamed.
Moving on to the built-in apps, let's start with the browser: as expected on a 1GHz Snapdragon device, rendering and pinch-zooming are pretty quick and smooth, but we find it strange that we can't tap to zoom. Also, the text doesn't reflow to the width of the screen, but given the screen size, most of the time we're happy with the original text layout. Next we have Google Maps: well, there's not much to say except that you get so much more real estate than you can on other phones, and we have several pictures to prove it -- just perfect for car navigation. Annoyingly, pinch-to-zoom is still disabled in Maps thanks to the 1.6 OS, but we'll live through it for now.
Speaking of media, the Streak's supposed to support H.263/H.264, 3GP, MPEG4, and WMV videos. Like our prototype, this final Streak played our MP4V-encoded 480p and 720p clips (up to 7.4Mbps bit rate) without a hitch, although for some reason it wouldn't open full-length films that were encoded the same way, even at 3Mbps and lower. More disappointingly, we had no luck with any of our H.264 clips despite the bit rate limited to 3.2Mbps, so we do wonder if this codec's supported at all -- maybe Archos can lend Dell a hand? On a brighter note, our WMV clips -- both VGA and 720p -- came out as good as the MP4V videos. Last but not least, YouTube videos looks great on the five-inch screen, but we've noticed a bug: if you have music playing in the background, the YouTube app simply plays video over the music rather than pausing it (like the Nexus One and Desire do). We're certain that Dell's team of talents can easily fix this (and we certainly hope that they're reading this).
Camera
Wrap-up
So, let's go back to the question that the whole world's been asking: what is the Dell Streak? In our humble opinion, it's most certainly a smartphone. A large and sexy smartphone that still fits in a pocket. Sure, a five-inch phone may not be everyone's cup of tea, but with devices starting to join the 4.3-inch party, consumers will undoubtedly be considering devices with more screen real estate -- the Google Maps screen comparison above probably says it all. We applaud Dell for taking one step ahead and going for the pocketable size limit, and the company's definitely earned its worldwide attention. The work isn't finished yet, obviously -- on top of the bugs list we've compiled, many potential buyers are holding back due to the aging Android 1.6 OS. Don't get us wrong, though, as the Streak's running like a well-oiled motor as it is, but we're hoping to get 2.2's sweet tethering action and a bit of Flash on that stunning screen as well. Rumor has it that O2's already road-testing a 2.x upgrade for next month, so let's keep our fingers crossed there'll be some Froyo in that cupboard.
Remember, big gadgets come with big responsibilities, so whether you like it or not, be prepared for some social interaction when whipping out the Streak in the wild. And please, if anyone comes up to you and asks if your Streak is an iPad, just kindly point them to our pictorial comparison.
