The Dell Streak that showed up in in PC Labs arrived enwrapped in mystery. Dell wouldn't tell us its price or many details, except to say that it was final hardware, almost-but-not-quite-final software, and that we could review it. We're withholding stars from this preview as we don't know how many of the Streak's many bugs will be fixed by its launch date, but we do know a few things about the device. Sized halfway between a smartphone and a tablet, the Dell Streak is a broad, black slab that looks good and runs a solid processor. Right now, however, its buggy, cobbled-together software begs for serious improvement before it reaches consumers hands later this year.

I can see uses for a five-inch phone. Hold it in two hands sideways, and it feels a bit like a PlayStation Portable—great for gaming. Strap it to a dash mount, and it's a good-looking GPS. Find a case with a kickstand, and you have movies all flight long. But the Streak's software isn't up to the task. It can't run top-of-the-line games, lacks enough GPS software options, and can only handle limited video formats.

Hardware and Phone Performance
The Streak is possibly the handheld world's most awkward size, too big to fit comfortably in one hand and too small to let the eyes relax and roam the way a 7- or 10-inch tablet does. Motorola pushed the envelope but didn't quite bust it with the Droid X ($299.99, ), and Apple made the iPad large enough that you're not tempted to try to wield it one-handed. But various physical cues, perilously, suggest you should hold the Streak up to your head and talk on it; my hand actually started hurting after a few minutes of that.

But the device has very good bones. It's slim, if not all that light at 6 by 3.1 by .4 inches (HWD) and 7.76 ounces, with a nice metal back plate and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. The 5-inch, 800-by-480 screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, which means it's tough, and it's decently bright and rich. There are three touch buttons to the right of the screen and a front-facing VGA camera to the left. Under the hood there's a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 2GB of built-in memory, supplemented by a 16GB microSD card under the back cover.

The Streak runs on AT&T's and foreign 3G networks. On T-Mobile it would only be a 2G phone—that is, if it's sold unlocked, which is one of the things Dell wasn't talking about. Let's assume it to be AT&T-only for now. I got solid speeds of 1.2-2 megabit downloads on AT&T's 3G network, and I also had no problem connecting to 802.11g Wi-Fi networks.

The Streak is a mediocre voice phone. For one thing, you really don't want to hold it in one hand. It's just too big. The earpiece sounds a bit dim and quiet, though it was definitely within the acceptable range. RF reception on AT&T's 3G network was on the low end of adequate. Voice transmissions come through clearly on the other side of a call but with plenty of background noise. The speakerphone is loud and punchy—good for driving directions. Talk time was acceptable for 3G devices at 6 hours and 39 minutes.

Since the Streak is unpleasant to hold up to your face, a headset is essential. Dell ships the phone with an average-quality wired one. My Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ) headset paired easily, but voice dialing was buggy and inconsistent. The headset could launch the very basic Nuance voice dialing app, but sometimes the app blurted out through the speakerphone rather than the headset. Getting voice dialing working reliably is absolutely critical to the Streak's success. Just as disappointingly, the Streak uses the most basic Nuance voice dialing suite, not their richer voice command suite which could let users dictate text messages and emails by voice.

Software: The Streak's Achilles Heel
The Streak's software build is a mess. Yes, this is AT&T's only Android phone that allows the sideloading of applications, and it totally lacks the annoying bloatware you see on phones like AT&T's HTC Aria ($129.99, ). But my device was buggy, inconsistent, and frustrating to use. Even if Dell fixes the bugs, the Streak's deeper software problems won't be cured until later this year when a promised Android 2.2 upgrade arrives.

First, the bugs. I had a pre-production model and Dell promised an OS update before launch. Still, one bug caused the Streak to drop calls repeatedly at one point until I re-seated the SIM card. The screen would sometimes black out briefly while connecting a call. The proximity sensor malfunctioned once in my test, causing me to activate the speakerphone with my cheek, and then black out the screen when I pulled the phone away from my head. The home screen didn't rotate into portrait mode, causing a strange jump in orientations when I quit from a portrait-mode app to the landscape-mode home screen.

Dell customized Android a little bit here. The Streak has its own touch keyboard, which has surprisingly narrow keys so Dell could cram a numeric keypad next to the QWERTY set. The home screen has some large application icons and custom Twitter and Facebook widgets, and Dell slightly altered the behavior of Android's apps tray.

In general, though, the Streak's software—Android 1.6 poorly altered—is very frustrating. Many more advanced Android apps don't work on the Streak. This looks like a great form factor for gaming, but the best gaming experiences require Android 2.0 or later.

The Streak looks like it would be a terrific GPS, but beyond Google Maps Navigation, I couldn't find a single third-party GPS program in the Market that covers the USA. That said, it locked on to my GPS location unusually quickly and spoke directions clearly. As I said, it's good hardware—it just needs more software.

A 5-inch screen demands a top-notch Web browser, but the best one, Dolphin HD, isn't available for Android 1.6. Some of my benchmarks didn't run, either.

The lack of good Microsoft Exchange support on the Streak is absolutely unforgivable. You have a choice between clunky, email-only WebDAV-powered Exchange mail, or the $20 third-party NitroDesk TouchDown app, which handles push e-mail, calendars, contacts, and tasks, but hives them off into a little sandbox where they don't interact with your phone's other address book or e-mail accounts. Having Android 1.6 is no excuse here, as Motorola, Samsung, and HTC have all implemented better Exchange support on that OS version.

To get your Exchange contacts into the Streak's main address book, Dell includes a free PC syncing app. It worked with my Windows 7 PC to sync my calendar, contacts, notes, and tasks locally with the Streak, but that should be a complement, not a replacement for good over-the-air sync.

Speaking of address books, the Streak's is a mess. It accepts Google and Facebook contacts but doesn't merge them or give you the opportunity to merge them, so you're likely to have two entries for each person. The little pictures near the entries also always take a second to appear. It's a much rougher experience than, say, HTC's or Motorola's address books on the same OS version.

The Streak has a front-facing VGA camera, but I couldn't find any third-party software that worked with it; neither Qik nor Fring could access the front-facing camera. As there's no standard Android SDK for front-facing cameras, apps will have to be custom-coded to work with the Streak.

If you're one of those people who immediately roots your Android device to dump its ROM onto xda-developers and you get thrown into joyous giggles by the word "Cyanogen," none of this probably matters to you. You'll hack together a version of 2.2 for this thing and be thrilled to the gills. But for everybody else, this is unacceptable.

Music, Video, and Conclusions
Dell gets the Streak's media capabilities mostly right, but I wish they were even better. The 5-megapixel still camera takes terrific pictures that are super-sharp and clear. But it takes too long to snap its shutter, with a 1.4 second autofocus delay. The video mode records clear 640-by-480 videos, but at a slightly low frame rate of 20 frames per second.

The Streak syncs with Windows Media Player on the desktop, including automatically transcoding non-HD videos and music into formats the device can play. HD videos, on the other hand, transfer over and then cause the Streak's video player to crash. If you don't use WMP, the Streak plays MPEG4 and WMV video, but couldn't handle our H.264, DIVX, or XVID files. Music of various formats sounded rich and solid over both wired and Bluetooth headphones, and videos didn't have a problem with lip sync. Dell showed us an HDMI cable last month that plugs into the Streak's unusual docking connector, but we didn't get one with this review unit.

The Dell Streak isn't ready for the average user yet. If you're going to hack it and install your own software, the Streak may be a fun platform to work on. Otherwise, wait until the promised Android 2.2 upgrade before taking another look.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous Talk Time: 6 hours 39 minutes

Compare the Dell Streak with several other mobile phones side by side.

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