The Dell Streak: An uneasy phone-tablet hybrid

Aug 20, 2010 10:49 AM

Video Blog: My time with the Dell Streak

The Dell Streak is a "pocket friendly" tablet computer, says Dell. Yet unlike other tablets, including the Apple iPad, it's also a smart phone that runs on the AT&T network. And like many hybrid devices, the Streak, while successful in some ways, combines its functions rather awkwardly.

As Jeff Fox pointed out recently in his First Look at the Streak, it is very portable as computers go—especially when compared to the much larger iPad. And with the largest smart phone screen currently topping out at 4.3-inches, the Streak promises a veritable IMAX experience compared with most phones. Yet as you'll see in our video, Dell Streak: Smart Phone or Tablet?, our first impressions of the Streak are that it's too small as a tablet and too big as a phone.

At first, I really did enjoy the Streak's screen, which seemed sharp and bright. Web browsing, watching videos and reading e-mails and text messages while on the go was certainly a lot easier and I own an HTC Evo 4G, one of the jumbo phones with a 4.3-inch screen—and an excellent one at that.

However, I soon found the extra screen real estate compared to my phone didn't translate into a significantly better experience with some functions. With the Streak's 5-inch screen much smaller than the 9.3-incher on the iPad, I found I was only slightly more motivated than on my phone to use the Streak for hour upon hour of e-book reading or movie watching.

Also, the overall dimensions of the Streak (6.0 x 3.1 x 0.4 ins) makes it just barely pocketable. And while it's nearly as thin as my Evo, it is a tad bulkier—despite its rounded edges. Adding all these small, barely noticeable characteristics together and you come up with a mobile device that is a bit burdensome to lug around.

For example, during ordinary phone calls, the extra one-plus inches in height, and nearly half-inch in depth, of the Streak compared to my Evo makes the device quite noticeable—and unsightly!—when carried in a shirt or pants pocket. And, at 7.7 ounces, nearly 2 ounces more than my Evo, I got really tired of holding it while watching a 40-minute TV show streamed from the Web. (Note to Dell: Follow HTC Evo's lead and build-in a kickstand!)

Bottom line: If you're clamoring for a single device that marries the functionality of a more-portable tablet and a smart phone (albeit one that uses AT&T, which isn't highly placed in our Ratings of cell phone service providers, available to subscribers), the Streak might pique your curiosity. Just be ready to compromise on its portability as a phone and on its functionality as a tablet.

We'll have more on the Streak once we fully test it and add to our Ratings of smart phones, since we think that’s where this hybrid best belongs, at least for now. We'll also continue to follow and test various other small-screen tablets set to hit what promises to be an increasingly varied, and confusing, marketplace for mobile devices.

—Paul Eng