Synergy between tablet & phone

Even though I am still quite satisfied with my Nokia N900 I keep my eyes open for a possible successor.
What I’d like to have is a unit which is primarily a tablet PC, and secondarily a phone since I rarely get called, and place calls even less.

So what I need is a PADD… a Personal Access Display Device. Apple pretended to come with something new when they released their iPad this year but all Star Trek fans know that the original PADD was invented more than 4 decades ago. (Unbelievable that it has taken the collective computer manufacturers this long to create this product for use in the real world…)

Anyway… The iPad is not an option for me, since Apple does not allow GSM/3G calls to be placed with the unit (only VoIP). (There are dozens of other reason I wouldn’t touch an iPad with a 10 foot pole, but I’ll leave the Apple bashing for another post…)

There are however 2 other interesting products hitting the market: the Samsung Tab and the Dell Streak.
The Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab is supposedly just a super-sized Samsung Galaxy S, although there is some disagreement about its CPU speed. Some sources list 1Ghz (identical to Galaxy S), others list 1.2 Ghz.
The Dell Streak is a bit smaller than the Galaxy Tab, and weighs 40% less: the Galaxy Tab weighs 370 grams, the Dell Streak 220 grams. (comparison: the iPad weighs a whopping 680 grams!)

The Galaxy Tab has a 7″ screen, whereas the Dell Streak settles for 5″. And this is where I am not sure… What is the ideal screen size…? It’s primary function for me would be tablet pc, but it does need to be functional for its secondary function as well. Holding a 10″ iPad next to your ear to call would be definitely very impractical, but how about 7″?
I know 5″ is doable, since I tried it out a bit with my eBook, a Sony PRS-300 with a 5″ screen, and the eBook definitely has more border around its screen than the Streak…

A short hardware tour of the Streak can be seen here, and the Galaxy Tab here.

According to PDAdb, one comes with Android 1.6 and the other with 2.2, but other sources have already confirmed that both will be running 2.2 starting September 2010.

The Norwegian release date for neither the Streak nor the Tab has been set yet.

update: The Tab is apparently available on October 24th in Norway.

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