Even though they’re still trying to secure carrier partnerships for their products, Dell is no stranger in the Android space especially when it caught us by surprise with the original Dell Streak. Luckily for them, they were able to snag T-Mobile’s attention and get their latest venture, the Dell Streak 7, onto the lineup of the nation’s number four wireless carrier. When so many Android tablets require such a high premium cost of ownership, it’s utterly refreshing to see that the Dell Streak 7 is priced at $200 with a contract, and more importantly, it’s under the $500 threshold at $449.99 no-contract. Sharing some similarities with its 5” sibling, the Dell Streak 7 is fully committing itself into the tablet realm, but does it stand a chance against the competition?
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- Dell Streak 7
- USB cable
- Hands-free Headset
- Wall Charger
- Quick Start Guide
Instantly, we’re quickly reminded on how the Dell Streak 7 closely mimics the design of its slightly smaller 5” variant with its sloped sides, however, it decides to employ this tough plastic shell instead. Still tallying in at a manageable 0.49” thickness, we’re happy with the overall size of the tablet, which is quite comfortable to hold with even one hand, but there is a surprising amount of weight with this one. Furthermore, its screen is definitely a magnet for smudges and finger prints, but its plastic casing combined with its criss-cross pattern manages to handle well in keeping everything else looking clean. Taking most of its design cues from the original Dell Streak 5, we still find the implementation to work well with this one – especially for something regarded as a full figured tablet.
Taking advantage of its speedy HSPA+ connection, we find a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera for video chat and shooting self-portraits perched above its display, while the usual set of Android capacitive buttons are located on the right along the sloped side. Happily, the three buttons are finger friendly in size and we didn’t have any trouble pressing them; nor did we run into any problems accidentally hitting them.
Meanwhile, the rigid feeling volume rocker and dedicated power button are sitting close-by next to one another on the top edge, and in fact, they exhibit a sensible response when pressed. If it were a smartphone, we would be appalled to find a proprietary charging/data connection port, but since this is a tablet we’re talking about, the one on the Dell Streak 7 doesn’t come as a surprise.
Dell Streak 7 Review
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Compared to other relatively fresh Android tablets on the market, like the Motorola XOOM, some would assume that the Dell Streak 7 is diminutive in the processing category. However, you’ll be somewhat astonished to find a contemporary 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor at the heart of this device. Somewhat uncharacteristic of such a high caliber chipset, we find some less than appealing choppiness going on when navigating across its homescreens – and even more when a live wallpaper is activated. However, it’s not to the point unwieldy, but we would like to see more fluid movements with its operation.
Dell didn’t do anything extraordinary with the Android 2.2 Froyo experience on this one, but it utilized its Stage user interface that we view as favorable thanks to its useful set of homescreen sized widgets. Of course, there are some enhancements to it over the stock experience, but considering that this is a much more powerful machine than the original, it would’ve been nice to see even a subtle customization. By now, Honeycomb is indeed the preferred choice for new tablets, but regardless, the overall experience with the Dell Streak 7 is still pretty satisfactory.
Camera and Multimedia:
If you’re still planning to carry the Dell Streak 7 in your back pocket, there’s no denying the allure that goes behind taking candid shots with it – even for tablet! Unfortunately, we’re not all too thrilled by the so-so quality produced by its 5-megaixel auto-focus camera. After capturing some images, it produces some muddy looking backgrounds with slightly acceptable details with foreground images. Moreover, its cooler looking color output generally applies this ethereal effect which tends to make shots seem over-exposed.
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