Samsung's iPad 2 rival Galaxy Tab 10.1 goes on sale a day early in London

Samsung's much anticipated iPad rival the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has just gone on sale a day early at Currys and PC World's Tottenham Court Road store, attracting a horde of eager customers.

The tablet has been on pre-order at the stores since 25 July, and is available in a Wi-Fi version exclusively at PC World for a month, the retailer said.

Priced at £399, the Tab 10.1 got a favourable four star review from V3 on its release in the US in May, when we rated it a good alternative to the iPad that existing Android and Google Apps customers will enjoy using.

The tablet has a 2-megapixel front and 8-megapixel rear facing camera, a high quality 10.1in 1,280x800 screen, a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and 1GB RAM. Connectivity-wise there is Edge and GPRS for on-the-go browsing as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a battery capable of lasting nine hours.

The Tab 10.1 also ships with tablet-optimised Android Honeycomb and, unlike the iPad, will can display Flash content.

Judging by pictures of the queue posted to Twitter this afternoon, the launch has attracted quite a few Galaxy Tab fans, although nothing on the same scale as the iPad 2 launch. At the time of writing, Currys said it had 70 black and 69 white models in stock and does not expect to sell out tonight.

The device is, of course, controversial as it is at the centre of a patent infringement suit in the US. Apple has requested a preliminary injunction in an attempt to stop Samsung making, using, importing and selling various devices including the Tab 10.1.

03 Aug 2011