The Samsung Galaxy Tab has been placed as Apple's direct competitor in the ultra competitive market of lightweight slate computers. But does it stack up?

The limited edition Tab 10.1 has a 32GB flash memory, WiFi capable and stunning 10 inch display with a 1280 by 800 resolution. It boasts a 1GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. The 7,000-mAh batter is great for a full day of gaming, emailing and multimedia tasks before recharging.

The commercial version of the Galaxy Tab will have a black textured back for a better grip for those people with sweaty hands. There is a 3-megapixel rear facing camera capable of recording video at 720p and 2-megapixel front facing camera for video calls. The 10.1 screen will rest comfortably in the users hand and the Tab won't give anyone problems on that end.

Samsung is using a TouchWiz user interface for the commercial version. The Honeycomb offers the application tray that is useful for users who multitask and use more than one application at the same time. The YouTube widget can let you flip through YouTube videos with a simple flick of your finger.

The tablet really shines as a pure media consumption device. If you just want to read e-books or watch videos this tablet is for you. Reading digital books is good and the resolution is crisp making you forget you're reading through a tablet.

You can load videos easily and YouTube works with minimal delays. Videos play brilliantly however the pause and fast forward buttons can be hard to access.

The downside is that there is no SD card or ports of any kind on the tablet. If you want to transfer media you'll have to look at another tablet. For a sleek outlook Samsung has sacrificed such ports which might irritate users who want to share their content with other tablets.

If you are in the market for a good solid tablet for entertainment purposes the Samsung Galaxy Tab will not fail you. At a price of $499 for 16 GB or $599 for 32 Gb it's an iPad at less the price.