Laptop Thoughts: News & Reviews on Laptops, Netbooks, Slates, and More.

"Now that we've seen whats coming for Android tablets, the battle is on-we even think they're better than the iPad in many ways. For a more detailed breakdown, here's a comparison between the iPad, Xoom, Streak, and Playbook tablets."

A very visual comparison of the pretenders to the throne, with the iPad being again in the bullseye. A very telling stat not shown here, but in the linked article, is that the Blackberry Tablet OS has about 4,000 available apps, Android 2.2 about 200,000, and the iOS about 300,000. To me, the ecosystem is still amongst the most important features, and one commenter makes a good point that we should be counting "quality" apps, and not just raw numbers of apps. User experience (implementation of features) is not measured here, a very subjective experience that can make or break a device. Finally, one commenter makes a good point that only two of the four of these products compared are "real." The PlayBook and the Xoom are still yet to be released, so the comparison is really between shipping products (iPad and Streak 7) versus what may (or may not) be in the final released products. But still an informative read.

"We've known about the Dell Streak 7 since it was introduced at CES 2011. However, today T-Mobile shared pricing and availability details for the upcoming Android slate. Starting February 2nd, you will be able to buy the tablet from T-Mobile for $199 (after $50 rebate) with a 2-year contract or for $449 without a contract."

With a 7-inch 800x480 capacitive screen, dual cameras, 16GB memory and Android 2.2, the Dell Streak 7 seems to be competitively priced with its main competition, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. A 5GB per month data plan from T-Mobile will cost $39.99 monthly for 4G HSPA+ service where available (T-Mobile allows Wi-Fi mobile hot spots/Tethering). Early testing shows that the Streak 7 "has plenty of power, but its endurance is sorely lacking." Lots of Pros and Cons, and the early consensus it that this is a good start, but not yet a challenger to the Galaxy Tab or the iPad. It'll be interesting to see how T-Mobile positions the Streak 7 vis-a-vis the Galaxy Tab. Laptop goes so far as to recommend skipping the Streak 7, and recommends buying the Galaxy Tab, or waiting for the LG-G Slate or the Motorola Xoom. Nice to see real products arriving at last!