Thought the Dell Streak phone/tablet has been available in Europe for some time already, Dell has yet to officially announce a debut date for US customers itching to wrap their hands around a 5" Android phone. Today, AT&T began accepting pre-orders for the phone (with no exact launch date), setting pricing at
$300 with a 2-year contract and $550 without a contract. But even without contract, the phone will be locked on the AT&T network--T-Mobile users are out of luck. Only the shiny black finish will be available at launch, with a cherry red option coming later this year.
Just like the version of the Streak we got hands-on time with at this year's CTIA (when everyone still called it the Dell Mini 5), the retail unit will ship with Android 1.6 (Donut). Dell claims that a 2.2 Froyo update will come out before the end of the year, but the lack of any firm launch date may scare away early adopters who may be switching from an Android 2.1 device. The 5" form factor isn't for everyone, anyway--Dell is positioning it as a device for users who want a pseudo-tablet for video playback and comfortable web browsing.
Internally, the Streak isn't much different from other high-end Android smartphones, sporting a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5MP camera, and 800x480 TFT display. The device also carries 512MB of RAM and 2GB of internal MicroSD storage for apps (along with a user-accessible micro SD slot for expandability).
