What to expect from Froyo on the Dell Streak

As I mentioned earlier that I have in fact been fortunate enough to be reviewing a Dell Streak. I have written quite a bit about it and there isn’t much everyone interested in the Streak doesn’t already know. But for everyone new to the Dell Streak, it is a 5 inch screen (Gorilla Glass in fact) Android Tablet by Dell designed for the Social & Media power user who wants more out their mobile experience. The Dell Streak also has a wireless radio allowing you to use 3G where WiFi is not available. The Dell Streak is  a phone too, and can be purchased from Dell with an AT&T subsidy taking some of the bite out of the near $600 dollar price tag. For those of you wanting more on the Dell Streak, CLICK HERE.

A bit awkward perhaps when holding it to your ear when making a phone call, but the build quality of this device is excellent. So what is the problem? Android 1.6. A very limited earlier version of the Google Mobile Operating System that has some major UI Issues. The good news is that Dell has promised the Froyo, Android 2.2 update soon and this has current device owners excited, and potential Streak owners waiting to buy. There are a ton of reviews on Android 2.2, but what can we really expect it to look like on the Dell Streak? We can now have a full look as the boys at Engadget got their hands on the update and have put together a very thorough review. Outcome, there a few hiccups, but all in all it is miles apart from Android 1.6!!

So what do you get? For me, PORTRAIT view of the Desktop UI! Wow was it hard to deal with always swiping through the home screen tabs in landscape when holding the device in portrait mode would be so much easier based on the shear size of this device! There a lot of other wonderful updates that I am going to quickly list before you check out the video:

Android 2.2 Update on the Dell Streak:

• How screen UI has been updated to “Stage UI” which is something unique to Dell. Stage UI by Dell gives you some predesigned widgets unlike Android 1.6 that has just an open slate and you can add icons and just a hand full of widgets. The Dell Stage UI has a much nicer Gallery, Music, Social, Home, Web, and contacts. All of which have multiple thumbnails of the content each contain. The most important part of this new UI is that it works in Portrait! Another really cool update is the Launcher tabs that pop up at the bottom of the screen when you press and hold. It looks a little like HTC Sense and they are swipe-able to quickly locate and find a page (Stage Page?) on the home screen that you need to get to quickly instead of swiping through a lot of screens needlessly.
• The camera app is not too much different than the one used on Android 2.1 that you may have seen on some other Android Devices. The one nice thing is now you will be able to shot 720HD Video!
• The Android 2.2 update now supports pinch to zoom in the web browser as well as flash video content. The browser in the video does seem to be very smooth only bogging down on some of the more “heavy” home page websites.
• SWYPE!! Are you kidding me! This is friggin’ awesome! Excuse my excitement, I am a huge fan of Swype!
• Pinch to zoom in Google Maps? YES PLEASE!
• Other Android 2.2 native enhancements include Wifi hotspot and  USB Tethering,
• Added Apps include: Amazon MP3, Kindle, Quickoffice, Evernote, PageOnce Personal Assistant, RadioTime, Zinio Reader, CoPilot Live 8 (30 day trial). Dell has a few apps added which include Backup and Restore, Mobile Sync, and also the Dell Mobility Suite.

Those are some of the things I took away from the video below. Have a look and get ready for your Dell Streak to become a brand new device all over again for you once the Froyo, Android 2.2 update hits! Enjoy!

[via Engadget]