Archive for the ‘GSM’ Category

I’m pumped to finally get a chance to blog about the upcoming Dell Streak tablet device. Since we first previewed the Dell Streak at CES 2010, it’s been making waves in the blogosphere ever since. The 5-inch tablet will launch first to customers in the United Kingdom in early June. Customers there will be able to purchase it across the UK at O2 stores, O2.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse and later this month on Dell.co.uk. Pricing and data plans for UK customers will be announced by O2 before availability. We plan to make the Dell Streak available to customers in the United States later this summer.

I’ve been at Dell for 16 years, and I don’t think there’s ever been more buzz around a single Dell product than this. In my view, that’s for good reason. Hardware and design-wise, this thing impresses. Add the ever-increasing capability that Android brings to the equation, and you’ve got a mobile device that offers a ton of flexibility while looking cool in the process. The Dell Streak brings together a great web browsing experience, multi-tasking capability, slick turn by turn navigation and a great way to enjoy your photos, movies and music into a sleek device that’s built for mobility.

The Dell Streak is a hybrid device that lives in the space between a smartphone and other larger tablets or netbooks that you might be using right now. We designed it to provide a wide range of users flexibility to do what they need with a mobile device. That’s why we packed the Dell Streak with a lot of features. We’ll utilize that flexibility via over-the-air updates for platform upgrades, Adobe Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 later this year, plus other enhancements like video chat applications and more.

After using the Dell Streak for a bit, one thing that really stands out in my opinion is the screen. The vivid, 5-inch diagonal display may seem only slightly larger than many of the smartphones making waves out there specs-wise. But when that larger screen is coupled with higher pixel density, it’s surprising how much difference that extra inch and a half or so makes in everyday activities like browsing the web, playing games or watching video. Because it’s made with Gorilla Glass the screen also has a pretty big durability advantage over more fragile mobile devices. Take a look at the Gizmodo hands-on to see what I mean. The Dell Streak is thin (10mm-which is thinner than a lot of mobile devices out there), and though it’s just a bit heavier than other smartphones, it feels solid and balanced-which makes using it pretty natural across a number of activities. We’ll also offer all kinds of Dell Streak accessories like a car dock kit, battery replacements, a home AV dock and more.

The Dell Streak is a device designed for accessing entertainment, navigating your busy schedule and connecting you to the friends and family who matter to you. If you want dig into more details, check out this video interview with Kevin Andrew from the Dell Streak development team:

Hardware-wise, the Dell Streak features the following:

A sharp 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800×480) display for a great full-screen experience watching video or browsing the web
Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm
5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash that offers easy point & shoot capability and quick uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
VGA front-facing camera enables video chat functionality down the road
A user-removable (and replaceable) battery
A 3.5mm headphone jack means many of you can use the Dell Streak as the music source (and more) in your car
Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 (think headsets, external keyboards, stereo headsets, etc.)
UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA
A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB. That means you can store lots of movies, music, photos or other kinds of files.
On the software side, here’s what you can expect:

A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell user interface enhancements
Access to over 38,000 apps (and growing) via the Android Marketplace
Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown
Google Voice support
Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
Like an increasing number of our laptop and netbook products, Dell Streak will ship with cushions made from compostable bamboo.

More Dell Streak details will be coming in subsequent posts. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments or questions to this blog post, or follow the discussion on Twitter by using the #DellStreak hashtag.

@ Dell.com

We’ve seen Nokia make some waves with power packed smartphones like the Nokia N95, N97, and N900, but the competition has forced them to drastically rethink their strategy in the wake of other mobile platforms that have taken center stage. Things may not look too peachy for Nokia after their yet unannounced Nokia N8 handset was previewed by none other than Eldar Murtazin. Although it’s still being tagged as a prototype unit, Murtazin had plenty to say about the handset that’s being coined as Nokia’s next generation handset that will easily take the coveted crown in the smartphone market. When it came down to the hardware and design, Murtazin found it rather average and on par with existing handset. The 12-megapixel camera on board produced slightly better pictures than those with the Sony Satio, but its ability to shoot HD videos didn’t impress him that much considering that the feature doesn’t turn heads as much as it used to. Finally, Murtazin was perplexed with the HDMI port found on the phone because it isn’t the standard one you’d find on other devices. By far the biggest standout for the Nokia N8 is the Symbian^3 operating system that’s been touted in the past by many as being a serious contender in the mobile platform market. Unfortunately, this was the biggest disappointments to the phone because it packed an uninspiring user interface which looks to be nothing more than a cosmetically superior version of S60 5th Edition. All in all, it has to be taken into consideration that this is still a prototype and that things could be different with the final production unit. We’d suspect that Nokia may be going back to the drawing boards to see what they can do from both the software and hardware side to make the device more appealing and intuitive.
@ phonearena.com