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Dell’s 5-inch Streak tablet may not be on a tear but the company is still moving forward with plans to introduce its second Android tablet.

Dell plans to launch a 7-inch tablet “in the next few weeks” and a 10-inch tablet within a year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.Dell’s founder and chief executive Michael Dell briefly showed the device at a Oracle conference last week but didn’t offer any details about the product.

Dell’s move to a larger screen tablet is in keeping with the company’s strategy of slowly but steadily introducing new handheld devices. In February, Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com that the Streak aka Dell 5 Mini would be the first in a series of devices.

“We are going to have a family of tablets,” Choubey said. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”

Since the introduction of the Apple iPad earlier this year, almost every major PC maker has announced that it is working on devices that can rival the iPad.

Just this month, Samsung, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and tablet startup Kno announced new products. Samsung showed a 7-inch tablet called Galaxy Tab that will be available on four major U.S. carriers –AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in time for holiday season shopping.

Meanwhile, RIM has announced the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7-inch tablet targeted at business users and consumers. The PlayBook is expected to be available early next year.

Tablet startup Kno is focusing on students with 14-inch single screen and dual-screen tablets that are expected to be available by the end of the year.

Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads so far.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has canceled its planned tablet ‘Courier’ while HP is trying to integrate the Palm webOS into its tablet products.

The 7-inch Dell tablet could make the company a real contender in the tablet space. With its 5-inch display, the Streak is more like a super-sized phone than a real tablet. Dell has also priced the Streak like a phone –offering the device for $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T.

So far, there’s no word on pricing for the 7-inch Dell tablet. But Dell will have plenty of competition to keep it real with its upcoming tablet.

Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

When Research in Motion introduced its tablet, the PlayBook, on Monday, it was diving into a market already dominated by Apple’s iPad.

But there’s other competition too, either already on the market or soon to be: The 5-inch Dell Streak, which is available now; and Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which isn’t.

Since the iPad started shipping in April, Apple has sold more than 3 million devices. In June, Dell introduced the Streak, a device billed as a tablet but priced like a phone. Samsung hopes to bring its tablet, the Galaxy Tab to market in time for the holiday season shopping.

RIM announced its latest device, the 7-inch PlayBook at its developer conference Monday.

The PlayBook won’t be available till early next year. But it’s not too soon to see how its promised specs stack up with the main competitors it will face when it comes out.

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• Tablet
• Apple iPad
• BlackBerry PlayBook
• Samsung Galaxy Tab
• Dell Streak

• Display
• 9.7 inches, 1024 x 768 pixels
• 7 inches, 1024 x 600 pixels
• 7 inches, 1024 x 600 pixels
• 5 inches, 800 x 480 pixels

• Processor
• Apple A4 1 GHz
• 1 GHz dual-core
• 1 GHz ‘Hummingbird’
• Snapdragon QSD280 1 GHz

• Weight
• 1.5 lbs
• 0.9 lbs
• 0.8 lbs
• 0.48 lbs

• Dimensions (H x W x D)
• 9.5″ x 7.4″ x 0.5″
• 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″
• 7.5 ” x 4.7 ” x 0.4″
• 6″ x 3.1 ” x 0.4″

• Storage/Camera
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB; no camera
• 16 GB, 32 GB; 5 MP rear camera, 3 MP front camera, video recording
• 16 GB, 32 GB; 3 MP rear camera, 1.3 MP front camera, video recording
• 16 GB microSD card; MP rear camera, VGA front camera, video recording

• Operating System
• Apple iOS
• QNX
• Android 2.2
• Android 1.6

• Connectivity
• Wi-Fi + AT&T 3G (no contract) + Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi + Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi + 3G (on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile) Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi + AT&T 3G (on contract) + Bluetooth

• Internet
• No Flash Support
• Supports Flash 10.1
• Supports Flash 10.1
• No Flash Support (Flash software updates could come later)

• Battery
• 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• N/A
• 4,000 mAh rated for 7 hours of movie play
• 1,530mAh battery, rated for up to 9.8hrs talk time

• Price
• $500-$700 (for Wi-Fi only). $630 – $830 for Wi-Fi + 3G
• N/A
• N/A
• $560 with no contract, $300 with a two-year contract

• Availability
• Shipping since April
• End of the year
• Early 2011
• Shipping since August

• Apps
• iPad + iPhone apps through Apple app store
• New app store will be launched by RIM
• Android Market Apps
• Android Market Apps

*battery life as specified by the manufacturer

Photo: BlackBerry PlayBook/Research In Motion

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Dells Android-powered Streak is an intriguing device. Billed as a tablet but priced and sold like a phone, the Streak has more in common with the HTC Evo and Droid X than it does with the iPad.

Teardown specialists iFixit decided to drill into the Streak to see what its internals look like.

Dell has designed the device so that a mechanical engineering degree is not required for a successful disassembly, says iFixit, which was able to reverse engineer the assembly process within minutes.

The Streak’s 5-inch LCD screen has a layer called ‘Gorilla Glass’ on top that is scratch resistant and durable. The LCD is bonded to the front panel glass to increase the strength of the device, as well as the sensitivity of the capacitive touch panel. But that is also likely to increase the cost of fixing the device if you break just the glass.

The front panel’s construction means the device should be able to withstand drops from above waist height, says iFixit.

The 1530 mAh battery on the Streak is easily replaceable and is covered with a sheet of steel, rather than plastic, to decrease its overall thickness.

Streak has a second 2 GB microSD card near the top of the motherboard that holds system and applications files.

The “C”-shaped motherboard of the device comes out easily after disconnecting some cables, says iFixit, and all components are attached to this motherboard.

Overall, the Streak rates high for the ease with which its battery can be replaced and the use of standard connectors for the cables.

But the real panel feels cheap, says iFixit, and deforms easily for a device that costs nearly $600.

Story continues.