The is the first Android tablet I can take seriously. It's well-built, elegant, and fast. No, Android 2.2 doesn't fit as perfectly onto a tablet as Apple's iOS does. But at the right price, this may provide the first real challenge Apple has had in the U.S. tablet market.

I received a few minutes with the Galaxy Tab at its , and I was impressed with its performance. The hardware feels solid and comfortable to hold. The edges are a bit squarish, the corners are rounded, and the metal back is smooth. At 13 ounces, it didn't bend my wrist, at least in the short time I got to use it.

Android isn't made for the tablet form factor, so tablet manufacturers have generally resorted to hacking the system. Samsung's hacks are elegant, at least. They don't remove the Android Market; if you download apps that don't fit the 1024-by-600 screen, they just appear with a black border around them. Since many apps are designed for the 854-by-480 screens of , the border isn't all that huge.

Most of Samsung's software work seems to have gone into changing the PIM apps and Web browser to better use the 7-inch screen. The calendar app looks a lot like a day planner, the contacts app makes heavy use of tabs, and the browser's UI has been subtly and pleasantly altered.

I had more mixed feelings about Samsung's Media Hub video store. The good news is that it worked quickly, and downloaded video looked very sharp. But the selection wasn't that great, prices were pretty high, and the app's interface generally looks like a betalots of white space and default fonts.

Unfortunately, Samsung left out one very important mystery: the price. The Samsung Galaxy Tab might be a great seller at $299 plus data for $20 per month, with no contract. But I think it's safe to say that it wouldn't do so well at $599 plus $60 per month for data. Samsung was so coy about pricing, in fact, that I started to believe the carriers haven't set their pricing yet. But that doesn't excuse Samsung for not giving a price for the Wi-Fi model, which will be sold without a wireless carrier.

I'm looking forward to getting units into PCMag Labs to test. Tim Gideon, our tablet expert, will do the review, but I'll be looking over his shoulder.

Tim Gideon contributed to this story.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:15am Eastern to clarify the Tab's weight.