Short review of the Dell Streak with XCSoar
Max Kellermann
I have decided to buy a Dell Streak 5" for XCSoar, replacing my old
iPaq hx4700. It runs with Android, not Windows CE. We will release a
"stable" version of XCSoar for Android in March or April 2011, and
this switch to Android in my own glider will give me some more
motivation to make our Android version more mature. XCSoar is
available for free on the Android Market.
The Streak arrived today, and I've installed XCSoar on it. As
expected, it is faster than my old HTC Magic. The CPU is a modern 1
GHz Snapdragon ARM chip, with good OpenGL support.
http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/PICT0367_1024x768.html
The Streak is bigger than PDAs, but not a lot. 5 inch is just the
right size for the cockpit. Mobile phones are too small, and tablets
are too large.
The display is a transflective TFT, which looks pretty bright. The
weather is overcast today in Germany, no direct sunlight to test with.
At normal daylight, it looks much brighter than a hx4700 and a Dell
Axim x51v. It is comparable to the Altair display, but one needs to
consider that the Altair has an antireflective display, while the
Streak seems like a mirror - applying an anti-glare layer will reduce
its brightness slightly.
http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/PICT0376_1024x768.html
The Streak has a high-resolution display (800x480, same as the LX Mini
Map and iPaq 31x). The Altair has 320x240, and the other PDAs on the
photo have 640x480. An Oudie is limited to 480x272. I would not go
below 640x480, and 800x480 feels comfortable.
The display is capable of multi-touch. XCSoar doesn't have
multi-touch yet, but we will eventually implement that.
More pictures: http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/
Max
Mike
Look forward to your report when the sun returns, Max.
Barbs
configure it because I thought I would be able to do so without
instructions....
I have used simple GPS's in the past and am relatively comfortable
with most gadgets, but failed completely to get the maps etc working
until I read the instructions and even then it was a bit of a
struggle. I have created an idiot's guide here, that should help most
get the basic setup.
http://xcsoar-android.blogspot.com/
Feel free to post any updates etc, here or as comments on the blog and
i will try to integrate them into the guide going forward.
Lots of people have complained about the keyboard issue inputting
names, it is a problem, but with a bit of trial and error you can
succeed (it is there, but just invisible, querty).
I haven't used it in the wild yet, but use my phone as an incar gps
the whole time and never have a serious issue with glare.
Kind regards,
Richard
Max Kellermann
> Lots of people have complained about the keyboard issue inputting
> names, it is a problem, but with a bit of trial and error you can
> succeed (it is there, but just invisible, querty).
This bug was reported a few weeks ago, and I managed to fix it today:
http://www.xcsoar.org/trac/ticket/786
(Please report all bugs to that page; bugs don't get fixed unless you
make us aware of them.)
A new maintenance release (6.0.3) is going to be released within the
next 24 hours, and it will include this fix.
Max
Barbs
me. :(
Will try again
Thank you
Max Kellermann
> Look forward to your report when the sun returns, Max.
The spring is coming now!
Streak vs Altair in direct sunlight:
http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/PICT0383_1024x768.html
http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/PICT0384_1024x768.html
More pictures: http://max.kellermann.name/gallery/fliegen/streak/
Both displays are doing very well, but it is very hard to make good
pictures. It depends very much on the angle. You can read both
displays very well in direct sunlight, but you might have to turn them
slightly.
The Streak turns into a mirror quickly in some sun angles, but you can
still focus your eyes on the screen (within limits). At the same
angle, the Altair is not doing significantly better: instead of seeing
a small mirror image, you can see the sun spotlight all over the
screen, making it unreadable as a whole.
Max
Mike
Looks pretty good. Is it really that much brighter than the 4700, or
is the back light off on the Ipaq?
thanks,
Mike
Max Kellermann
> Looks pretty good. Is it really that much brighter than the 4700, or
> is the back light off on the Ipaq?
Backlight was forced to 100% on all of the devices. There is a huge
difference between hx4700 and Streak/Altair. Even more in "reality";
the dull photos don't show the difference well enough.
(Still need to experiment with anti-glare foil on the Streak)
Max