Product Review: Dell Streak

My cell contract came due recently so I got on the market looking for a new phone; logically it only made sense that I investigate a smartphone, so that's what I did. I'm not an Apple person so the iPhone really had no interest for me, and this was before the Windows phones came on the market so I figured I'd go Android. Factor in the point that I knew I would be looking for a tablet soon and the Dell Streak started coming up in my mind more and more. I've been using it for a little over two months now and thought I'd comment on it.

I LOVE it.

I won't go into technical details, you can get that from the review I linked earlier, but I will talk about it from a user perspective. The number one question I get asked is about the size. Compared to an iPhone or the windows phones, yes it's big, but considering how much more real estate I have in the screen I can easily live with it. I've seen people watching videos on their phones and I wonder how they do it, my phone plays HD in a 5" screen that can be seen not only by myself, but also a select audience. Furthermore, it fits in any of my pockets with no problems; at the end of the day you need to store your phone someplace and I have no problem finding a place to keep mine.

I put the Kindle app on it and am now reading ebooks with the greatest of ease. It's not quite as nice as what I've seen from the Kindle, but it's also small enough to carry easier than a Kindle, plus I don't have to think about bringing a reader along; if I leave the house I have my phone, which has my books on it. I've also found a comic book viewer which allows me to carry quite a suppl of reading wherever I go and I gotta say the color screen is nice for that. And all that goes without even mentioning movies or TV shows.

I have access to all my email accounts along with a keyboard I can type on and text messaging is a snap, again with the help of my large on screen keyboard; I've never texted before because of the hassle of the keypad or miniature keyboards on phones. I've even started using Facebook and Twitter more since I always have something I can update with in my pocket.

A 5 meg camera on board, with both a forward and backwards facing lens means I always have a decent quality camera in my hands, again with a display big enough to view what I take. The camera is pretty light hungry, but then so are most digital cameras so I can live with it.

I have to say, the one question I can never understand is "How can you talk on it?", but I've been asked that more than a couple times. Honestly it's a dumb question, the phone is big enough to actually reach from your ear to your mouth, meaning you can always hear whats being said and don't have to worry about getting your voice to carry to the mike, unlike most phones that only reach to just past your cheekbone. To those people I ask, "How do you talk on it?"

Not much more I can say, I love it and it almost never leaves my hand. Sure it's a little big for some applications, and it's a little small for others, but Dell did a helluva job making the best fit possible; it's big enough for 95% of my daily usage and small enough to take with me everywhere, unlike a full sized tablet or a regular smartphone, which is one or the other. I honestly don't see it ever being a big seller, due to it's size, but I literally cannot recommend it enough. Sure I'd like to see my OS get updated and I'd like my battery to last longer, but I'm not aware of any instance where I wouldn't be saying both those things anyway.

I'll make it short and simple, if you need a phone and feel you might use it for more than just a phone, take a look at a Streak. I know for a fact I won't be looking for a tablet this year, there is nothing they have to offer that my Streak doesn't do.