Dell Streak to Be Released This Summer with Five-inch Screen on Portable Tablet

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

Highly aware of the success of Apple's iPad, Dell plans to release the Streak, a five-inch Android (News - Alert)-based tablet, early this June in Europe, with release later this summer, across the United States.

With its five inch screen and other features the Streak is smaller than many other tablets but still has many popular features.

"The Dell (News - Alert) Streak hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets," said Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions Group. "Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect, and navigate their lives."

The Dell Streak is a compact tablet marketed to users who want portability but still have a screen size large enough to easily read content, text, IM, and use voice calls features.

Students, mobile professionals, and families are Dell's target groups, who the company says will find Streak's web-browsing capabilities similar to a laptop. The five-inch screen is large enough to present Web pages in their natural form, Dell says.

The Dell Streak uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon solution with integrated 1GHz processor to combine basic functionality, performance, and benefits of a laptop in a pocket size, the company says.

The Dell Streak will support over-the-air updates including platform upgrades, Adobe Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 later this year, video chat applications and other software innovations.

Key features include:

• Integrated Google (News - Alert) Maps with turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
• Full screen browsing with a five-inch multi-touch WVGA display
• Easily integrated social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook (News - Alert) and YouTube
• High resolution five MP camera, VGA front facing camera, removable battery, built-in Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity options
• 2GB of internal dedicated storage
• It is packaged with cushions made from 100 percent sustainable, compostable bamboo

Streak will be available in the United Kingdom at O2 stores, as well as the Carphone Warehouse.

Dell is one of several companies releasing tablets this year - motivated by the success of the iPad. Apple (News - Alert) said that it sold 1 million iPads in just four weeks.

(source: http://it.tmcnet.com/topics/it/articles/86431-dell-streak-be-released-this-summer-with-five.htm)