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It was just a matter of time. With the growing sophistication of the Android OS now in its v2.2 Froyo iteration, the world’s 2nd largest mobile phone maker Samsung just stepped into the tablet war zone to challenge Apple’s iPad now looming as the undisputed leader in a pack of one. Welcome the challenger – the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Samsung seems to be playing its cards right with a product that straddles the line between the mobile phone and a full tablet device in terms of size. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a hefty 190 x 120.5 x 12 mm and weighing 380g but is just half the size of the iPad. It’s certainly larger than the largest smartphone in the market and you know it is with its 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with multitouch, Swype, accelerometer and 3-axis sensor. Is it any good? We’ll let you be the judge, read on:

Trumping the iPad

The Samsung Galaxy Tab wins points over the iPad for having a 3.2 megapixel shooter with autofocus, LED flash including a video recording feature with D1 (720 x 480) resolution at 30fps. 3G video calls are also supported with its front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.

There’s also Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and MicroUSB v2.0 local data connectivity support. External memory expandability of up to 32GB adds to its internal memory capacity which comes in two flavors of 16GB and 32GB. Lastly, you have a true multitasking OS in the Android v2.2 Froyo as well as Adobe Flash 10.1 support you won’t find in the iPad.

So what other features does it have that is at par with the iPad? It’s a Tri band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA on 3G and a Quad band GSM on 2G with class 10 GPRS/EDGE. It also has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n for hotspot surfing and a GPS receiver with A-GPS support.

The 4000 mAh Li-ion battery powers up to 7 hours of movie playback and really makes this a superb feature set.

According to recent reports, there are two new additions to Samsung’s Galaxy series of mobile phones. The first is a mid range handset that is a lot like a super upgraded Corby handset, while the other is a massive tablet device that still keeps mobile phone features.

First off, the i5801 Galaxy Apollo; this new handset has been shown off at the Orange Mobile UK website, though the full details have yet to be confirmed. So far, it has been revealed that the smart phone will come with the new Android 2.1 Éclair open source mobile platform, a 3.15 mega pixel snapper and a decent sized 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display. Overall, it is very HTC Legend like, though it could use a better 5 mega pixel camera and the super AMOLED touch screen which will be used in the i9000 Galaxy S.

While a release date and CPU details have yet to be revealed, expect to see Orange get a semi exclusive version of this smart phone (or possibly even full exclusivity of the device itself).

Last week, Samsung also showed the tech industry that it has been busy planning for the upcoming tablet wars. With the successful launch of the Apple iPad last May, it is no longer a surprise that other companies want a share of the tablet market, and being armed with Google’s Android OS is certainly a great plan.

The new Galaxy Tab has a 7 inch touch screen display. While it is slightly smaller than the iPad (which has a 9.7 inch screen), the Galaxy Tab has a feature that the iPad can never match, the ability to make calls. This is why the Samsung Galaxy Tab is still considered as a smart phone despite its very tablet-like features.

Korean manufacturer Samsung has yet to confirm when the device would be in production, but many tablet fans are hoping to try out the device very soon.