The Dell Streak has already hit the stores in India but Apple's highly anticipated device is yet to be officially announced here. Since the last couple of months, there has been an onslaught of tablet devices into the Indian market. Dell, Samsung, Olive and Binatone have launched their products but Apple's high-end tablet device iPad and RIM's PlayBook are still eagerly awaited in this part of the world.

To rival Apple's product, there are many new tablet devices launched in the market. The latest to join the bandwagon to challenge Apple's share of tablet market is the Dell Streak. The 5-inch Dell Streak may not match the iPad on size, but can it beat it on any other fronts? We put the two head-to-head in a stat-clash.

Screen
The Apple iPad has a much larger screen at 9.7-inches compared to the Dell Streak's that stands at 5-inches. The iPad's screen is also higher resolution at 1024x768 pixels compared to the Streak's 800x480 pixels. Both are capacitive screens, which makes navigating around the tablets a breeze.

Although the iPad does have a larger, higher resolution screen, the Streak isn't necessarily designed to carry out the same tasks as the iPad. it's designed more as a halfway point between a tablet and a smartphone, and the size and display does express this.

Operating system
The iPad runs the same mobile OS X platform as the iPhone, although it has been tweaked to suit a larger screen. At the moment, there's till no multitasking or any other features previous tablets running Windows and Linux have. However, the built-in Safari browser is probably the best way of accessing the web we've seen on a mobile device, even if it does omit Flash.

The Dell Streak runs a customised version of Google's Android 2.1, although rumours are abound that it will be upgradeable to Android 2.2 in the near future.

Applications
There's certainly no shortage of applications for the iPad. The 200,000 iPhone and iPod Touch apps are able to run on the iPad in addition to the 8,000 iPad-only ones, which is a pretty impressive feature. Standard apps that come preinstalled on the iPad are Calender, iTunes Store, App Store, Maps, Notes, Photos, Safari, Mail, and YouTube.

The iPad was also designed as an e-book reader and this is demonstrated through the magazines and newspapers available to download on the iPad. The Android Market currently offers around 40,000 applications on the marketplace, although the full lineup available on the Dell Streak will become available in the coming days.

Storage
The iPad is available in three capacities - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, but there's no card slot for expanding the storage.

The Dell Streak features a much smaller 4GB internal memory, but it can be expanded by 32GB using a microSD card. This is one flexibility option that the iPad doesn't include.

Extra features
The Dell Streak features more than the iPad in terms of extra features. There's a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash and also a secondary front-facing camera for video calling.

Pricing and availability
Dell Streak is now available in India. It is offered at a modest price of Rs. 34,990 in India. You can get 500MB free data usage per month with Tata DOCOMO postpaid subscription. Also, you can pre-book the Dell Streak at all Dell Exclusive Stores and Tata DOCOMO Dive In Centers in India.

For Apple's iPad, the pricing scheme is relative depending on what model you're after. The regular Wi-Fi version is cheaper, but with the iPad 3G+Wi-Fi, which will be priced at the higher end, you can access the internet from anywhere. As Apple products are known to be on the costlier side, so we presume that iPad too is going to cost more than the Streak or Galaxy Tab in India.

Verdict
The iPad has more applications, a larger screen and a higher resolution screen compared to the Streak. What is nifty about the Dell Streak is that there are cameras on both the back and front of the device, and there's a card slot so you can expand the memory.

If you're looking for a more user friendly option, then the iPad will not let you down. If you're a little strapped for cash, the Dell Streak is certainly a viable alternative.