Broken screen - what can I do?

I am a design consultant for a number of Military projects and no the Streak would not have passed my rigorous standards. 

The Streak is not a finished product but more of a concept beta device.

The top and bottom screen  plastics are of very poor quality and subject to stress cracks.

Apart from the Display the biggest design failure is its data/charging port. This has been left open to the elements leaving a direct route for dirt, dust and moisture ingress. It would have been pretty simple to have designed some form of port cover or followed other manufacturers by using mini/micro USB format. There is no earthly reason for Dell to have used the port style they did.

The Gorilla Glass is subject to scratching quite easily, so buy a good quality screen protector. This could have been resolved to some degree at the design stage by ensuring  the Gorilla Glass was treated with a hard surface coating ( they could have also treated it with a finger print resistant coating too, Larger screen = larger finger print magnet.

The battery cover while a novel approach will fail pretty quickly, the aluminium used is so thin its subject to stress and easily deformed.  The locking Lugs of the battery cover are subjected to constant pressure as the cover is held on with a pressure fit. This will fail after a certain number of battery openings and closings.

The carbon body finish while cosmetically good looking is not resilient enough to withstand daily use and will quickly degrade leaving your Streak with a very unattractive and patchy finish.

And we all know about the software fisco, many promises were made about the streak and what it can do, much of which has turned out to be over hyped marketing lies.

If you want to look at a very well thought out design, go look at the HTC Mozart, its both inovative and solidly built with precision engineering (The whole body is machined from a solid block of aluminium).

Will Dell issue a recall? well that all depends on us the users. If we feel strongly enough and make our views know to Both Dell and your trading standards (You did not receive a product of merchantable quality)  this might force Dell to look at the streak and ensure these faults are corrected.

So as a concept I give the Dell Streak 4 out of 10, could do much better with both materials and design approach.   If Dell are going to continue with the Streak I suspect version 2 is rapidly nearing design completion and ready to be rolled out some time next year.

I have wondered why Dell being such a large corporate computer giant would attempt to launch its latest offering in europe rather than the USA. Call my cynical, but the American publics mentality is to sue first and ask questions later, where as in europe they prefer to apologize for its failings and accept second best.

5 Star Answer! (As I've rated :P) Ok, I agree again and again. The HTC Mozart is brill, my battery door is awful, a bit out of place and as the battery only works when it's in place, my phone won't always turn on unless I take the back off and on, it's pathetic. The screen's awful and not a gorilla, more like a dying fly, and I agree with everything you said, there's loads of problems. So, surely it's unfair to sell this phone if Dell must have known about all these possible/definite problems? What is there to do about this, a HTC Mozart would be nice! Thanks for the great answer again! Ryan. :emotion-1:

What a great Possible answer to everyones problems, ask Dell to replace your Streak with an HTC Mozart :emotion-2:

Just one minor drawback, Windows Phone 7 OS is dreadful, its so anully retentive you could almost mistake it for an iphone. Unless MS do something radical with it to give users back some control, it will be destined for the great betamax graveyard of poorly marketed technological marvels.

Still hats off to HTC for a well thought out and innovative piece of kit.

Yeah, I've not been impressed by/with windows phone 7. I like Android much, much better.

Dell are well aware of the design flaws.

I presented them with a whole list of them and on the 08/11/2010 they had a meeting with the design team and these problems were all discussed.  Sadly they have not had the decency to let me know the conclusion to the meeting. But I will endeavor to find out and post it here for everyone.

Maybe Dell will be prepared to make a statement to its users about the Streak problems.

Amy (Forum Admin) is well aware of me dealings with Dell and the Exec Office, maybe she can shed some light on what they have decided?

As I have said before if you are unhappy waiting for Dell to do something, take it to your Trading Standards Office, Clearly your device is flawed and not fit for the purpose it was designed for (inherent faults are not effected by warranty so its no exscuse for Dell to deny responsibility)

Happy Hunting!:emotion-2:

Ok, everybody in this forum knows the screen, design etc. is a mess, do Dell read their forums?!! If not (which I'm guessing is the case) then how will they find out? We'd have to tell them. My Streak's screen actually seems to have got worse as the top left isn't properly in place and it ripples the LCD anywhere on the screen now without a lot of force/pressure. What do we do to let Dell know it should be recalled???

Capacitive screens have several layers and probably some elements of the second layer which is near the screen faced problem and it caused your screen doesn't work. I suggest you to return your mobile or contact your reseller to give you more support.

I posted a link to a post in this thread on Dell's facebook page and got a response from someone working for Dell. They promised to have someone address the issue. WOOT!!!

I would actually like to get a response from Dell on this.    Please see the video and comments below. It appears that the "Gorilla Glass" is living up to it's name but the LCD is breaking. I've dropped my Blackberry Bold a lot and the lcd is perfect. This worries me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuuWRB43HCE

The reason for all the damage to screens is simple.  Dell in their infinite wisdom bonded the Gorilla Glass to the LCD display, so any shock to the glass is transmitted directly to the LCD. And  not being the greatest quality LCD it has the habit of bleeding as a result of minor  accidents that  your $20 mobile phone would take in it's stride.

Dell are fully aware of this problem as I gave a list of the design faults to the Streaks design manager and the display was one of them.

If you push Dell on this matter and make them aware of the design flaws I am sure they will want to rectify it for you. Much cheaper than publicly admitting the product is flawed and having to do a recall.

The Streak is not a disposable product even though Dell offer no back-up repairs or spares. If it's not repairable then it cannot be fit for its purpose, any problems just quote consumer law.

For the Price Dell should offer a full repair facility and accept accidents do happen, not suggesting having a Bradley fighting vehicle run over your Streak should be covered under warranty, but simple accidental drops to the floor that any reasonable person would class as an accident should be covered. 99.9% of all other manufacturers accept such accidents happen and design their product accordingly, those that fall through the net the manufacturer will often cover as they have great pride in their reputation and would like their customer to consider them when they next upgrade.

It is wrong to sell such a costly product at such high price. I took the phone out of my pocket and saw that the screen had cracks. Though the touchscreen seems to be working, the liquid of the LCD had spilled. It happened just a few weeks after purchase n they tell me its not under warranty. And now my warranty will expire on 31st of this month and it'll become a piece of junk.

All PCs and Laptops I have are from Dell so I had never expected DELL to do such a thing. I just loved DELL  till this incident happened. Even to repair it, they are asking for around half the price I bough it for.

And as now the prices have dropped, if I go for repair, it'll be just around $10 cheaper than a new DELL.

DELL has broken my trust. Its really a bad feeling for something u love so much. I still do not want to hate DELL and keep telling myself that accidents do happen but when I went online to check for a solution, I found that 1000s of people are having same problem. As the problem is due to manufacturing defect, DELL should take responsibility and conduct a product recall. That'll not only win hearts of many but will also win over many customers who prefer other brands.