Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Android tablet is available and apparently it's a bit of a hit. I’ve been playing with one for a couple weeks, enough time to form an opinion about it. Even if you haven’t been considering one, it’s something that you’ll want to at least be familiar with if you are curious about the future of tablets and mobile computing. Prior to the Galaxy Tab’s release we had not seen any Android tablets that were attractive enough for most people to consider over the iPad, so this was a big release for the Android community.

I’m not an iPad owner, but I do have an iPhone 4 so I’ve been leaning towards Android for the tablet. After getting a first look at the Galaxy Tab I was encouraged, but far from sold on the device. Samsung seems to be on the right path, but I’m not sure Android in its current stake is up to task of running a tablet. The OS is great for phones, but scaling that up to a 7- or 10-inch screen changes a lot, and the last thing I wanted was a device that felt slapped together. I use my phone for tablet tasks (e-reading, RSS, mobile video, etc.) now and the iPhone 4 has the apps I want and a screen I love, so a tablet would have to be really good to win my couch time.

Despite my desire for an Android device, the OS isn’t fully tablet-ready. It feels a lot like the worse parts of the early iPad where space wasn’t being used efficiently, apps were not scaling to the large display, and ultimately I was left wondering why I bothered to use a large device. I’m sure things will improve with Gingerbread/Honeycomb, but until that point I’m holding off. Android still seems ideally suited for use on tablets though. It’s lightweight and easy to augment with apps, just like Apple’s iOS, but it’s also highly customizable. The ability to customize is something that I don’t really need in a phone, but that I definitely want to see in a tablet.