The Dell streak, the purported iPad killer from Dell, is now available from O2 in the UK, with support from AT&T coming soon to the US.

But let’s get one thing clear, the Dell streak is not an iPad killer. In fact, in my humble opinion it’s not even a tablet PC. For one, it is only 5” diagonal, and no matter what anyone says, that for me does not constitute a tablet PC. It’s just a large cellphone, and a very good one at that, but still just a cellphone. For another, it runs on Android 1.6, which no matter what Dell says, has never supported anything close to a PC, like the iPhone OS which is based heavily on the Mac OS can claim.

Streak Features & Design

The Dell Streak is designed to be held in portrait mode (like a cellphone), as the now-familiar Android Home, Menu and Back buttons line the bottom, (and the side vertically in landscape mode, very untablet-like).

• A Dell custom designed home screen running on Android 1.6
• A 5 MP camera with dual flash.
• A front facing VGA camera, (maybe with video recording)
• Onboard 512 MB phone memory, (with 2 GB for Apps.)
• MicroSD slot.
• Display is protected by a sheet of tough Corning Gorilla Glass
• A 1530 mAh battery
• 1 GHz ARM cortex A9 cores aka snapdragon

The features above clearly point to a cellphone with illusions of tablet grandeur. Although, the lack of a decent productivity suite on the Android Market could hamper the ambitions of Dell on that front. And even if a good app does emerge in the Android Market, would you really want to make that company spreadsheet on a five inch screen?

At 3.1 inches wide, the Streak will fit, barely, in a shirt breast pocket, but only in sub-cargo pants pockets, not in side slit or back pockets. But at 6 inches high it could tip out of said pockets and, even at a surprisingly light 7.6 ounces (which, quite frankly, makes Streak feel a bit insubstantial), it’ll sag your blouse.

[via digitaltrends]