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Dell Streak 7: Another Device Without Enough Juice

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Reviews of the Dell Streak 7 are rolling and battery life looks to be the device’s Achilles heel. You can make a tablet sleek, sexy and powerful, but who cares if you have to constantly keep on the lookout for a power outlet? You would’ve thought that Dell would’ve learned this lesson by now, with countless consumers and reviewers citing the iPad’s long battery life as one of its best features.

So how bad is the battery life? Our friend Avram Piltch of LaptopMag ran his standard web browsing test with the screen brightness set to 40%. The Dell Streak 7 only mustered 3 hours and 48 minutes over 4G. Over WiFi, the Dell Streak 7 scored just over four hours. For comparison purposes, the Galaxy Tab lasted for more than nine hours on the same test.

So what’s the problem with the Dell Streak 7 battery life? Simple- the battery. With a capacity of only 2780 mAh, it’s no wonder it drains so quickly. The Galaxy Tab’s battery has 43% more capacity than the Streak 7’s.  Kevin Tofel of GigaOm wrote:

A true battery test requires more testing time, so I’ll revisit this aspect, but the Streak 7 seems to gulp power. Using it in limited fashion, I’ve seen the battery indicator drop by 10 percent in as little as 30 minutes, for example.

Joanna Stern, another reviewer I respect, from Engadget wasn’t impressed with the Streak 7’s battery life either and wrote:

There’s no way to beat around the bush on this one: the Streak 7’s battery life seriously disappoints…We powered on the device at 6 pm on Friday evening and after about five hours of intermittent usage on T-Mobile’s 4G network — checking Twitter, e-mails, looking up a few addresses on Google Maps, and surfing the web — the tablet was totally dead. …on our battery rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video with brightness set at 65 percent and WiFi on, the 2780mAh battery only lasted three hours and 26 minutes.

The device looked pretty nice at CES 2011, but we only had a couple of minutes to give it a once over, so these reviews are really disappointing.

I’m not sure what it’ll take for companies to understand that battery life IS mobility. Building devices that can’t last for a day of intermittent use or longer than people are likely to use it during a single session is mindless. Would you try and sell a sports car with only a two gallong tank? Dell and otherswho are selling tablet devices need to stuff bigger batteries inside of them if they hope to take even a bite out of Apple’s iPad pie.

11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    02/10/2011 at 9:08 pm

    I think this except from Walt Mossberg’s review explains how much of a fail the battery life is: “Dell says its target audience will use the Streak 7 plugged into wall outlets and TVs through an extra-cost dock”

    It’s a MOBILE device, not a device you plug into outlets and docks as a primary use case. Ugh. :(

    • Xavier

      02/10/2011 at 10:03 pm

      Completely agree Kevin. The use cases we see being pushed at briefings is often an indicator of poor battery life, other short comings.

  2. Ausrins

    02/10/2011 at 9:38 pm

    I think this except from Walt Mossberg’s review explains how much of a fail the battery life is: “Dell says its target audience will use the Streak 7 plugged into wall outlets and TVs through an extra-cost dock”

    dell

  3. Carlton Flowers

    02/11/2011 at 3:50 pm

    I guess I am different. If a device has the features I want and functions well, 4 or 5 hours of battery life is plenty for me. I don’t mind grabbing an extension cord and plopping down on the couch.

    • Eddie E.

      02/14/2011 at 9:32 am

      you are absolutely correct, after all, how ofted do you have the time during the day to sit down and watch three movies back to back..whenever i ride the train for my commute its usually an hour and 30 mins each way, I have all the radios on (Wifi, Bluetooth and 4G) and when i get to the office i still have more than 705 charge at which time it sits on the dock ntil lunch at which time i use if for maby 15 mins of calls and all of my hour for music…then back to the office where it goes back into the dock…and so on…I took a trip to LA last month and it lasted the entire trip playing music and watching a movie, some gaming…it was dead on arrival but by that time, I was in the hotel….I can definately admit that the battery does not come up to par with its competition but i wont call that a deal breaker…remember it has twice as many cores as the samsung so it think the battery is not bad but not excellent either…I would like to see dell offer a higher battery upgrade option at a later date.hopefully at a reduced price for anyone interested…I think the unit has much better build qquality than thr samsung too…People sould really not listen to all the bad opinions of the Streak 7..go see it for yourself then i am certain the tides will change…I am also running launcher pro plus which rund abundantly smoother than the stock stage launcher.

  4. Motorola Xoom

    03/02/2011 at 10:04 am

    I am completely agree with other.Its has poor battery timing.

  5. Kenr

    03/09/2011 at 12:51 am

    My biggest complaint about the Streak 7 is the GPS. From a cold start, my Dell Streak 7 GPS can take anywhere from 10 minutes to OVER an HOUR to get a lock, and I am not in downtown Manhattan surrounded by skyscrapers, I am in suburban North Carolina surrounded by..nothing. This is my second Streak, I returned the first one for this issue, and the replacement is just as bad. I get the same results when using the built in Google Maps or Navigation, as well as third party apps like GPS Status .

    Once the GPS locks, after what is often an hour wait, it relocks pretty quickly as long as you don’t power down the machine for any period of time (Warm start). I’d love to just keep it on all the time, but the poor battery life is well documented.

    In summary this makes the GPS pretty useless for almost anything, at least for me. I have a service ticket open with Dell based on my replacement unit being just as bad, so I will update if Dell provides a solution.

  6. Sachin

    03/12/2012 at 11:12 pm

    i have dell streak mobile phone but it is hanging at starting just showing dell but doesn’t goes start only on dell please suggest me the solution. 

  7. Sharon

    08/04/2012 at 6:47 pm

    My dell streak7 doesn’t charge at all won’t come on I had it 8 months I’m sorry I got it

  8. Sharon

    08/04/2012 at 6:48 pm

    Won’t buy dell streak7

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