Dell's moving ever closer to releasing its first tablet device, announcing an exclusive partnership with U.K. broadband provider O2 and a June launch window.
Still, many questions remain in regards to the 5-inch Streak tablet, formerly dubbed the Mini 5. Dell has shown the device running the very outdated Android 1.6, but the final release version is up in the air. However, the tablet will get an over-the-air upgrade to Android 2.2, with Flash 10.1 support, some time after release.
What else don't we know? Pricing, and whether a data plan will be mandatory. Also, the U.S. release date is still a quite murky "later this summer."
At least we know pretty much all the Streak's specs. The tablet is powered by a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and has 16 GB of built-in memory (expandable by MicroSD card) and a 5-megapixel camera. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G and can even place phone calls, though Dell avoids calling the streak a smartphone. The user interface is tweaked to take advantage of the large screen, but there will be support for apps from Android Market. A variety of colors will be available.
Dell seems to be deliberately bucking the tablet trend with a device that's not much larger than some smartphones, which incidentally have grown larger with the forthcoming release of HTC's Evo 4G. Dell spokesman Ron Garriques said in a statement that the Streak "hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets." I'm curious to see whether that's a place consumers want to go.
If not, Dell's got backup plans. The computer maker is also planning to release 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets late this year and next year, as well as a trio of smartphones.
