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Early Hands-On Preview of Dell's Streak 7 Tablet

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-it's-the-year-of-linux-on-the-tablet dept.

MojoKid writes "Dell recently started shipping their Streak 7 tablet and it's the highly anticipated big brother of Dell's 5-inch tablet, the Streak 5 that came out in September of 2010. The larger Streak 7 goes up against stiff competition with the likes of Samsung's Galaxy Tab, though the Streak 7 is retailing slightly lower with or without a contract through T-Mobile. Regardless, the Dell Streak 7 offers some pluses over the Galaxy Tab, like its 5MP rear-facing camera, but comes up short in other areas, such as its lower resolution (800x480) display — versus the Galaxy Tab's 1024x600 display. The Dell Streak 7 also has NVIDIA's Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor under its hood for a rather snappy Android 2.2 experience, as you can see here in this early, hands-on preview of the device. In early benchmark testing, the Streak 7 is looking pretty strong versus the Galaxy Tab, which comes in neck-and-neck with the Streak 7 in Neocore, at around 54 FPS."

9 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. The real question... by rampant+mac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which one will be able to be upgraded to Honeycomb? I wouldn't buy an Android tablet before their tablet version of software became available, regardless of the hardware. Are there any upgrade paths that *either* vendor (Dell or Samsung) has specified? I feel some early adopters will be left out in the cold.

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    I like big butts and I cannot lie.
    1. Re:The real question... by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Which one will be able to be upgraded to Honeycomb? I wouldn't buy an Android tablet before their tablet version of software became available, regardless of the hardware. Are there any upgrade paths that *either* vendor (Dell or Samsung) has specified? I feel some early adopters will be left out in the cold.

      The best answer is "if it didn't come with Honeycomb, don't assume it will".

      Buy it for what it has now, not what it might have. After all, there are tons of people who were promised upgrades only to be left stranded, so it's best to assume that what you buy now is what you're stuck with.

      Most likely you'll be able to get Honeycomb through hacks at the very least, but buying now to get a future upgrade is a losing proposition. Best to wait for the Honeycomb tablets to come first.

      This is especially so when you buy Android devices that come with 1.6 firmware, too.

    2. Re:The real question... by Rennt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't get the attitude that Gingerbread is somehow unsuited to tablets. The definitions of "tablet" vs "phone" are arbitrary and mostly dictated by marketing anyway. A couple of years ago we would have called a 4 inch device a tablet, and look where we are now.

      But to answer your question, Samsung at least are apparently planning on sticking with Android 2.X on 7 inch class devices and 3.X on the 10 inch class, and I have to say this seems like a good move. Having used the wife's Galaxy Tab fairly extensively, and having watched the demonstration videos of Honeycomb, I'd honestly recommend against upgrading to 3.0 if given the option. Honeycomb looks like it really requires a full 10 inch display before the UI gets out of your way, whereas the stock OS (albeit with DPI tweaks and an aftermarket launcher) is a great fit.

    3. Re:The real question... by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is what I think is stupid about android. It's touted as being "open" but you are left depending on the manufacturer of the device to upgrade the software. You should be able to download the software directly from Google and install it on any tablet. Without the manufacturer getting into the way. This should be a condition of allowing the manufacturers to use the Android OS. Making it user servicable. Otherwise what's the point of going with Android. Apple was a great step forward, allowing updates without going through the cell phone carrier, and having only software from the manufacturer. Android needs to go to the next step and make it so that everyone can upgrade their software, without going through any barriers.

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      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. Meh by wiredlogic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let me know when honeycomb is out. Since these devices are all going to be treated as abandonware there's no point in buying into a dead end that will be obsolete in months.

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    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  3. Re:what is the minimum desired resolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except competitors already have NFC, competitors already had >200PPI on PDAs, phones, and tablets well before the iPhone 4 launched (though in fairness, the jump to ~330PPI did leapfrog all but one or two), etc.

    Personally, much as I'd like the battery life of an ARM tablet over an Atom machine, until they can match my U820's 1280x800 5.6" screen, I'll get by with the 820 and an N900.

  4. Doing it wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you are reviewing a new tablet based on FPS and hardware benchmarks then I bet you are one of those people who still can't understand why the iPad is owning the market.

  5. Re:Pwns the galaxy S... by iluvcapra · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Based on what I've read, the architecture, the event and view models, at least from the client's perspective are very similar. Events go on a queue, get dispatched down a data structure that identifies the targeted UI element, MVC workflow, etc. I am aware that Android, at this present juncture, does very little hardware acceleration, and almost none in 2D, and it doesn't really affect the UX right up to the moment the user tries to scroll, though of course users judge the whole touch experience by the scrolling...

    One can imagine how this sort of thing happens... the Apple engineer hands the prototype to the Steve, and the first time it stutters he gets smacked, The Google engineer hands the prototype to whatever-his-name-is, and the first time it stutters they say, "oh well, it'll ship, it's up to the HTC guys to come up with a fast enough processor." Nice to just do the OS, huh?

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    Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  6. Re:Bad name choice by sunspot42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What is with these names, anyhow? Streak? Pad?

    What's next? Stain? Chunk? Smear? Dingleberry?