Dell Streak 7 Review

The Dell Streak 7 is Dell’s first 7 inch tablet and one of the first tablets to come with Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core processors. It’s also the first tablet to support T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ network. Yes. The Streak 7 promises lightening fast speeds whether you’re surfing the web or playing a graphics intensive game. And unlike the Streak 5 which was always somewhere in the middle of being a smart phone and a tablet, the Streak 7 knows what it is. It’s a full-fledged tablet device that runs Android 2.2 and should be upgradeable to Android Honeycomb 3.0 as Dell promised sometime in the future.

Hardware

Measuring 7 x 0.5 x 4.7 inches (HDW), design wise the Dell Streak 7 is not much different from the Streak 7 and Streak 5 and even a few recent Dell smart phones like the Venue and Venue Pro. The construction is mostly plastic with a rough backside providing extra grip while holding it and tapered around the edges.

The front features a glass covered screen (Gorilla Glass), a 1.3MP front facing camera with microphone, and tactile buttons for home, back, and menu located on the top right side of the screen to make them easier to reach while holding the tablet. On the back is a 5MP camera for photos and 720p video recording, the Dell Logo is inscribed in the center with T-Mobile’s Logo.

The sides of a tablet are usually where ports are usually cited and the Streak 7 is no different. On the left side of the device is a 3.5mm headphone jack (ear buds come included), and one or two stereo speakers cited at the top corners. To the right is a hinged flap covering the SIM card slot and SD slot for SDHC memory cards. Dell didn’t include a mini or micro USB port and an HDMI port.

Processor

The Dell Streak 7 uses Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. It’s a dual core processor with 1GHz clock rate which is downclocked to 800MHz on this device to converse power. Nevertheless, things happen on the Streak 7 with no lag whatsoever. Compared to the Galaxy Tab, the Streak 7 presents much faster UI navigation and general use.

Display

The 7 inch display is capacitive (meaning it supports pinch to zoom) and made out of Gorilla Glass (which hopefully means it won’t get scratched as much). Native resolution is 800 x 480 which is a huge let down. Compared to the Galaxy Tab 7 pictures appear a bit duller and you can see that the screen is pixilated. This dumbs down the whole High Definition experience for users as you won’t be viewing true HD videos on this thing due to its poor resolution.

Storage

16GB of internal memory is included. There’s room for more storage with a standard SD card slot allowing an additional 16GB of storage. As there’s no in-built USB port, Dell provides a sell-on USB connector that connects to their proprietary pin which is otherwise used to charge the device or have it sync to a computer.

Software

The Dell Streak 7 runs Android 2.2 and now that Android 2.3 and Honeycomb 3.0 the Android OS specifically designed for tablets has been released, it’s possible to upgrade to any of both newer versions through a carrier update or by rooting the device (which voids your warranty). As the Android 2.2 was designed for smartphones which generally make use of smaller screens, the Streak 7 includes Dell’s in-house UI called the Stage UI which is basically a bunch of full-screen widgets and launchers all appearing on the home screen. Besides the home screen customization, the Stage UI appears to be pure Android beneath.

Summary

At $199 with a 2-year contract on T-mobile’s network and approximately $450 off-contract, the Dell Streak 7 is a tablet that speaks for itself. It misses out on some features the geeky user might consider essential (like a micro-HDMI port to stream visuals to a TV screen or a micro-USB port) and offers a lesser quality screen compared with its competitors like the Galaxy Tab or Archos 7, but all in all, the Streak 7 delivers a speedy experience that’s hard to come by on any tablet.

To its credit, the Dell Streak 7 is perhaps the first tablet to include a 4G radio giving users access to the insane download speeds that 4G internet connections have to offer.