Dell Streak 5 owners: do you like your device?

[omber]

I made the mistake of buying Acer Liquid last year and I want to get the Streak as a replacement. Is it a good phone? Do you have any complaints? How is the onscreen keyboard?

 

[cronos]

The Streak is definitely a unique device with niche users. I really like mine, but I've had a Streak for ~8 months and it was first released more than a year ago (June 2010). I would *not* suggest it for someone who's buying it today, with one of the reasons is the somewhat outdated hardware in it.

My biggest complaint is the terrible quality control in the production line. It's true that with any product you'll get some lemons, but I found that the Streak is particularly horrible in this case. The early batches were mostly bad, LCDs (underneath the gorilla glass) breaking on its own, random overheating, slowness and crashes, defective internal SD cards, etc. The later batches are much better.

I'm going as far as saying that with the Streak it's pretty much a gamble which kind of device you're going to get, a perfect one (if you're very lucky), or one with something wrong with it. Something that you won't know what it is until it's acting up, and it can be absolutely anything. Screen, battery, internal SD card, you name it. Of course, Dell will replace it for free very quickly when these happen (I got my replacements ~3 work days from when I called in), but it's still a pain to have to do that.

The Streak is definitely not for everyone, but those who like it usually really really love it. However they have to go through the 'trial' first. The lucky ones got their first and happy with it, some will have to go through replacements after replacements until they got their good one (I've heard of someone on their 6th). I'm on my third one now. It's been about four months, it doesn't seem to be showing any strange behavior, so I'm really hoping this is going to be my last one

If you are planning on getting it with a subsidy for a two-year contract with AT&T: forget about it. You will regret it and curse yourself for the next two years because you're stuck with it.

If you are buying it outright and can get a significant discount, older hardware don't bother you much, you're not shy of rooting/flashing custom ROMs, and (most importantly) screen size is very important to you, then it's worth to think about. There's nothing else out there with 5" screen, and I'm guessing there'll never be another one.

Edit: I forgot that you asked about the on-screen keyboard. It's basically nothing to write about. I believe the Streak is now shipping with stock keyboard and also Swype. Some people will find that these are enough, but just like all Android devices out there, most will want to try something else from the market and find what they like. I've tried several of them and am really liking Swiftkey so I'm using that now.

 

[hellfire88]

The Streak is definitely a unique device with niche users. I really like mine, but I've had a Streak for ~8 months and it was first released more than a year ago (June 2010). I would *not* suggest it for someone who's buying it today, with one of the reasons is the somewhat outdated hardware in it.

My biggest complaint is the terrible quality control in the production line. It's true that with any product you'll get some lemons, but I found that the Streak is particularly horrible in this case. The early batches were mostly bad, LCDs (underneath the gorilla glass) breaking on its own, random overheating, slowness and crashes, defective internal SD cards, etc. The later batches are much better.

I'm going as far as saying that with the Streak it's pretty much a gamble which kind of device you're going to get, a perfect one (if you're very lucky), or one with something wrong with it. Something that you won't know what it is until it's acting up, and it can be absolutely anything. Screen, battery, internal SD card, you name it. Of course, Dell will replace it for free very quickly when these happen (I got my replacements ~3 work days from when I called in), but it's still a pain to have to do that.

The Streak is definitely not for everyone, but those who like it usually really really love it. However they have to go through the 'trial' first. The lucky ones got their first and happy with it, some will have to go through replacements after replacements until they got their good one (I've heard of someone on their 6th). I'm on my third one now. It's been about four months, it doesn't seem to be showing any strange behavior, so I'm really hoping this is going to be my last one

If you are planning on getting it with a subsidy for a two-year contract with AT&T: forget about it. You will regret it and curse yourself for the next two years because you're stuck with it.

If you are buying it outright and can get a significant discount, older hardware don't bother you much, you're not shy of rooting/flashing custom ROMs, and (most importantly) screen size is very important to you, then it's worth to think about. There's nothing else out there with 5" screen, and I'm guessing there'll never be another one.

Edit: I forgot that you asked about the on-screen keyboard. It's basically nothing to write about. I believe the Streak is now shipping with stock keyboard and also Swype. Some people will find that these are enough, but just like all Android devices out there, most will want to try something else from the market and find what they like. I've tried several of them and am really liking Swiftkey so I'm using that now.

May I ask what ROM you've found to be the "best" in terms for performance/stability over the stock ROM, in your experience? I have an unlocked Streak 5 and like the size overall but haven't messed/tweaked with it much (still on the stock ROM). The default keyboard and swype (esp in landscape mode due to size of screen) aren't that great, so thanks for the swiftkey suggestion, will try that out.

 

[shortylickens]

Seriously wanted to get on after playing with it at a Best Buy Mobile store in the mall. But was only a couple months into my Droid and didnt wanna pay the ETF. Would get it now if I wasnt in love with WP7 and also if the Streak were more powerful. Supposedly there is a new 5 inch phone on the horizon from Dell late this year or early next year.

 

[hellfire88]

Seriously wanted to get on after playing with it at a Best Buy Mobile store in the mall. But was only a couple months into my Droid and didnt wanna pay the ETF. Would get it now if I wasnt in love with WP7 and also if the Streak were more powerful. Supposedly there is a new 5 inch phone on the horizon from Dell late this year or early next year.

Yea, I'm trying to decide to either keep the Streak 5 and tweak it (seems with Android you have to download "custom ROMs" to get the most out of them) VS just swapping out to a Windows Phone 7. Seems WP7 has a great stock "out-of-the-box" experience which I like.

 

[omber]

So I bought one, which ended up being a returned unit from a drug dealer - when I turned it on there were text message notifications asking for weed... Fun times.

However I was not deterred by this (not a smart choice) as I just found out Streak 5 has been discontinued - and I REALLY liked the device.

So wiped it, updated to 2.2 then calibrated the screen and it works like a charm. I must say this is a very very very nice phone IF you are ok with its size.

 

[shortylickens]

Yea, I'm trying to decide to either keep the Streak 5 and tweak it (seems with Android you have to download "custom ROMs" to get the most out of them) VS just swapping out to a Windows Phone 7. Seems WP7 has a great stock "out-of-the-box" experience which I like.

Thats a whole separate discussion in about a dozen other threads. You definitely need to decide which platform you want first and then pick a device that fills your needs.
Since Apple only has one best device at any given time its an easy choice if you like iOS.
WP7 only has about 6 phones in the U.S. right now and none of them are fantastic so it should be simple to narrow down your selection.

If you like WebOS then its similar to iOS in that there's not much choice. If you like big you should just go straight for the Pre 3, if you like small get the Veer.

Blackerry also has a limited selection if you just want the best. Either the latest Curve or latest Bold.

Android is the only one with multiple options in each price range and feature set. But that makes deciding a little tougher.

 

[hellfire88]

Thats a whole separate discussion in about a dozen other threads. You definitely need to decide which platform you want first and then pick a device that fills your needs.
Since Apple only has one best device at any given time its an easy choice if you like iOS.
WP7 only has about 6 phones in the U.S. right now and none of them are fantastic so it should be simple to narrow down your selection.

If you like WebOS then its similar to iOS in that there's not much choice. If you like big you should just go straight for the Pre 3, if you like small get the Veer.

Blackerry also has a limited selection if you just want the best. Either the latest Curve or latest Bold.

Android is the only one with multiple options in each price range and feature set. But that makes deciding a little tougher.

Yea I tried them all (iOS, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, WP7, etc.) and basically am narrowing it down to keeping my Dell Streak 5 (Android) or getting a WP7 to hold me off til the Gen2 WP7 devices come out. I'll probably try to find a cheapish Samsung Focus on Craigslist to hold me off til a Nokia WP7 comes out and keep my Streak5 on the side.

 

[shortylickens]

Yea I tried them all (iOS, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, WP7, etc.) and basically am narrowing it down to keeping my Dell Streak 5 (Android) or getting a WP7 to hold me off til the Gen2 WP7 devices come out. I'll probably try to find a cheapish Samsung Focus on Craigslist to hold me off til a Nokia WP7 comes out and keep my Streak5 on the side.

Thats very similar to what I decided. I got an HD7 (used) with month-to-month Tmobile for now and will wait for better phones later this year or early next spring. Am keeping my Droid for some games and as a hi-tech MP3 player, no service. The drag n drop makes it better than most other things these days, and if you disable all the radios it gets good battery life.
Will probably need to root it though.

 

[hellfire88]

Thats very similar to what I decided. I got an HD7 (used) with month-to-month Tmobile for now and will wait for better phones later this year or early next spring. Am keeping my Droid for some games and as a hi-tech MP3 player, no service. The drag n drop makes it better than most other things these days, and if you disable all the radios it gets good battery life.
Will probably need to root it though.

Yup I'll probably keep my Streak5 around as an E-reader + video player.