Samsung have really upped their game with this iteration of their, somewhat confusingly named*, Galaxy Tab 10.1. It’s a beautifully light, slim device, at just 565g and 8.6mm thick, with a simple smooth design that rests quite comfortably in your hands. It has been heralded as the first serious Android competition for the iPad2, and it’s easy to see why. Powered by Android 3.1 and a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 CPU with plenty of memory, you won’t find any performance limitations.

There’s a glossy widescreen LCD to go with the rest of the gorgeous package, and this is perhaps where it differs the most from the iPad2 and others. Being a much more oblong tablet, sporting a high resolution aspect ratio of 16:10, it seems Samsung designed it with movies ‘on the go’ in mind. There are also two cameras on the device; a 2MP front facing camera for VoIP and similar, and a rear 3MP camera for snap shots and recording really quite decent 720p video.

All in all a truly positive step forward for Android tablets. And Apple has taken notice too, filing a barrage of patent lawsuits against Samsung and it’s Galaxy line, they seem keen to keep them out of the market by any means necessary. With parts of the EU, US and Australia suspending sales of Samsung Galaxy tablets and phones until the matter is resolved. So savor the opportunity to own the Galaxy 10.1 while your friends overseas can only fantasize.

*Don’t be confused, there was a previous tablet from Samsung with the same name, and very similar specs, just a little chubbier and not quite as pretty. It has since been re-dubbed Galaxy Tab 10.1v.

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