1st iPad competitor to crop up: The Dell Streak tablet

The Dell Streak arrives


So...the iPad has already reached 2 million units sold after less than 3 months from release, eh?
Well i guess it's time to watch the industry follow suit. A lot of tablet competitors have already been announced as soon as the iPad was launched, but none of them have had firm release dates placing their arrival in the near future...until now.


The Streak is Dell's foray into the tablet wars, as the company hopes to catch some of the cash-fall from the newly emerging tablet market.


A quick rundown of the specs as compared with the iPad:

	Dell Streak	Apple iPad
Processor	1GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon	1GHz Apple A4
Screen	5” 480 x 854 LCD	9.7” 1024 x 768 LCD
Storage	2GB internal, with SD card slot	16 / 32 / 64GB Internal, Non-Upgradable
Ports	USB 2.0 client, Hi-Speed, USB Series Micro-USB	None, aside from the usual Apple port
Operating System	Android 1.6	iPhone OS3.2
Size	152.9x79.1x9.98 mm / 220g	242.8 x 189.7 x 13.4 mm / 0.68kg
Camera	Rear Camera with Auto Focus 5.0MP, Front facing VGA	None!
Battery	1530 mAh, standard mobile phone	25W Li-on, similar to MBP 10hours (!) battery life
Notes	Available soon, locked to carriers	Available now, unlocked

It's running on Android 1.6...which in a way is good, because Android is a very strong and growing OS..but also it's bad because 1.6 is an OLD version, and will look stale compared to the amazing new 2.2 version (see for yourself here). Dell promised to release the 2.2 upgrade to the Streak later this year. Once it's out, the device will be able to support Flash on its browser, which is something the iPad will likely never be able to do.


The Streak also sports 2 cameras. The iPad for some reason doesn't even have one...meaning you will be able to take pictures and have video calls on the Streak, which you will never be able to do on the iPad (in this generation at least).


The Streak will be available in the UK by the end of this week, and it's supposed to be available in the US by July. No word yet when this will reach Asian shores, but i'm confident that Manila, Philippines buyers will be able to get the unlocked version as soon as it's released in the US (for $500).


You can read more details along with a hands-on video in the techradar review.