Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 FCC Approved

Announced at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung's second Android-powered tablet has just received FCC (Federal Communications Commission) approval.

The Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet appears to feature GSM 850 and 1900 MHz spectrum support, which makes it fully compatible with US networks.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been listed by the manufacturer as model number P7100, whereas the original Galaxy Tab appeared at FCC as Samsung P7000.

Considered more expensive than its iPad rival, the Galaxy Tab's price is expected to drop considerably as Samsung's executive VP of mobile division Lee Don-joo suggested recently.

Taking into consideration that Apple has just launched its iPad 2 at the same price tag as the original tablet, it looks like that the Korean manufacturer is now rethinking its marketing strategy, as the 7-inch Galaxy Tab is now being retailed for $600, which is $100 higher than the iPad.

As Lee Don-joo stated, “The 10-inch tablet was to be priced higher than the 7-inch tablet but we will have to think that over.”

The second Galaxy Tab has a 10.1-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors support and 800 x 1280 pixels resolution, which makes it one of the largest on the market when compared to devices from its main competitors: Motorola, Blackberry, Apple, HTC and LG.

Even though the tablet does not feature GSM voice communication capabilities, VoIP calls are possible thanks to the secondary 2-megapixels front-facing camera and Skype support included.

The tablet is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and boasts an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, that will enable users to take snapshots in poorly lit environments.

Samsung plans to retail two versions of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, one that will feature 16GB of internal memory and an improved version with 32GB.

The tablet is expected to hit the shelves in the US this month, but no additional information regarding its price or launch date are available for the moment.