Way back in February at MWC Chippy spoke with a Dell representative who confirmed that the Dell Streak (aka Mini 5) was one of a family of upcoming devices. Since then we saw leaked renders in April of a 7 inch and 10 inch Streak device courtesy of Engadget.

Jump to almost 9 months later and we find a Streak device passing through WiFi certification (this actually happened back in November, but didn’t get uncovered until recently.) The device could be one of several different sizes of Streak devices, but a commercial concept leak from Engadget lets us assume that the device is in fact the forthcoming Dell Streak 7. Let’s also not overlook the fact that Streak Smart called out case designer, Vaja, for listing a 7 inch Streak on their website.

From the Engadget leak and the WiFi certification, we know that the Dell Streak 7 will be a 7 inch Android device that functions as a phone as well. It’ll also have WiFi b/g/n and a Gorilla Glass screen. The commercial concept also mentions a “blazing graphics card for on the go gaming inch which could indicate some Nvidia Tegra integration, but could also just be marketing speak for “Look, it plays games! inch.

the original 5 inch Streak was already considered huge for a phone (and hasn’t quite taken off)… We’ll have to wait and see how people react to Dell expecting them to use a 7 inch device as a phone. Chances are, we’ll get a look at this device at CES 2011.

I’ll be hosting 2 live sessions today that I hope you’ll be able to join in on. The first is the MeetMobility Computex Podcast with Sascha and JKK out in Taiwan, myself back in the studio and special guest, Joanna Stern from Engadget joining us from New York. That will start at 1500 CEST (9am New York, 9pm Taipei, other times here.) and you can join in by tuning to MeetMobility.com/live It will be recorded and available later today.

The second event is a live open presentation and Q&A on the Dell Streak. That will start at 2100 CEST (Midday San Francisco, 2000 UK, other times here.)  I don’t have a full retail model but the device I have allows me to show you around the device, demonstrate some features, give you some thoughts and answer your questions. So far the device is living up to all my expectations with the extra bonus that the battery life appears to be better than I thought. Unfortunately JKK can’t join us because he’s still out in Taipei and by the time he gets back to his studio on Wednesday, I’ll be away on another commitment until the week after. We might have a few Streak owners from the UK joining the chat though so it will be the perfect chance to get together to talk about the device from multiple perspectives. Video and chat will be running at Carrypad.com/live. I’ll be bringing the Sony Ericsson X10, Viliv S5 and Archos 5 for comparison. See you there.

Though Dell doesn’t seem to have yet found a US carrier to launch with, it looks like they’ll be selling the Dell Streak [Portal page] toward the end of June for $500, unlocked, from Dell.com. $500 is reasonable for an unsubsidized device of this caliber.

Jkk has already had some extensive hands-on time with the device.

Ronald G. Garriques was on hand to demonstrate the Streak at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference where he stated the price and availability of the unlocked Streak.

The Dell Streak is also launching this month in Europe on the carrier O2.

Engadget has apparently received a leaked internal Dell announcement, as well as a few images of more upcoming devices in the Dell ‘Mini’ family. We knew that Dell was planning more devices than just the Dell Mini 5 [product page], and now we’re getting our first look at the rest of the family which includes 7” and 10” slates. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if these are renders of the same device. We’ll likely see some changes before they make their way to the market. No specs have been shared at this time, but it should be safe to assume that the larger slates will be running Android and using the ARM platform, just as the Mini 5 is.

Engadget is also saying that the Dell Mini 5 (A.K.A. “Streak”) will be released sometime “later this summer”. There has been evidence in the past to suggest that AT&T will be the U.S. carrier for the Dell Mini 5.

We showed you the other week that Engadget got their hands on a pre-production version of the Dell Mini 5 — they initially hooked us up with a nice gallery, but I’ve personally be waiting eagerly for a full list of thoughts, and according to the Mini 5’s popularity chart over in the product database, many of you have been too! Luckily, today is the day that Engadget has decided to grace us with additional Mini 5 info. They’ve done a pretty thorough write-up for a device which isn’t even ready for retail, but we can’t blame them — the Mini 5 is looking better every day. Be sure to watch the video walkthrough in their article, it’s the first thorough hands-on that we’ve seen (out of Dell’s hands) since back when the Mini 5 was known as the Dell Streak! Note the incredible vertical viewing angle at 1:10 in the video.

We knew that Dell would have the Mini 5 [Product page] at MWC and it looks like Netbooknews.com has one of the first looks. Not really any new info, but the device being showed off looks extremely slick, and it is likely very near its production form (if not already there). The person giving the demo mentions that the device will be able to play back 720p video and even output at that resolution through a dock which will have an HDMI connector.

The speaker says that we’ll see the Dell Mini 5 this year, and “sooner rather than later. inch He also goes on to say that the general model for smartphones these days is a subsidy to make them affordable and that Dell would stick with said model.

You might come to Carrypad for news on the latest and greatest devices in the MID segment, but if you haven’t taken a moment to familiarize yourself with our Product Database (hosted on our sister-site, UMPCPortal.com), now would be a great time to check it out. In short, we have dedicated pages for hundreds of devices (with the latest devices being added as they become known), and use these pages to collect all known info on each device as it becomes available. The Product Database can also be used to search for and compare devices to find one that is just right for you.

We frequently link to these pages when referencing devices to present you with a concise sheet of info that will enable you to quickly become familiar with a device that you may not have heard of or would like to know more about you’ll find these links in brackets following the device’s name in our articles. For instance, using the Product Database to follow a hotly anticipated and upcoming device such as the Dell Mini 5 [Product Page] will make it easy for you to stay up to date on the most important facets of the device as they develop. You’ll find everything from specifications to a handy popularity chart. There is even a hand-picked list of important articles from around the web which has its own RSS feed for easy tracking.

Also, don’t miss the top 10 chart at the top of the Product Database which shows the relative popularity of the top devices in the database. Go give it a try!

Image for this post thanks to Engadget

Engadget has managed to get their hands on a pre-production Dell Mini 5 [Portal page] (aka Dell streak or M101), and they’ve got a nice gallery of the device up on their site as well as a brief video. Hopefully they’ll drop some hands-on impressions later, but for now it’s pretty much just visual media. I’m most interested to see what they think of the off-centered QWERTY keyboard which is offset due to a seemingly always present numeric OSK — the keyboard could make or break this device. Check out a few shots below and jump over to Engadget for the full gallery and video.