Hands on:Samsung Galaxy Tab 8 inch

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the large-screen followup to last year’s most notable Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab, and features a 10.1-inch screen, as the name implies.

Like the Xoom, it runs on an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chip and it comes with the made-for-tablet Google Android OS Honeycomb. The device is said to be running a “pure” Google Android OS without any of the Samsung add-ons, which will please purists looking for a zippy, smooth interface.

And let’s not forget the 8-meg camera at the back (for photos) and the 2-meg camera at the front if you choose to do some HD videoconferencing.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks sleek and makes its predecessor look a little chunky and will be one of the tablets to own in the coming months (it goes to stores in Europe next month). The biggest question is how differently Samsung will market it as compared to the Xoom, which also boasts similar specs and is hitting stores in the United States right about now.