Samsung Galaxy Tab selling for £500 at Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse has revealed pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The hotly anticipated Android tablet will cost £530 unlocked and SIM-free, or £500 on a contract with TalkMobile.

These are the most concrete prices we've seen yet, as Carphone Warehouse is actually offering the Tab with a contract. Previously, online retailers seem to have been taking a punt on prices, with Amazon, for example, initially quoting a massively controversial price of £800, which quickly plummeted to £680, and then £600, after the earlier prices quite rightly went down like a sandpaper sandwich with you lot. How do you feel about the standalone £530 price? Remember that you'll need a SIM card contract for 3G browsing on top of that cost.

£530 is the same price as the lowest-spec 3G version of the Apple iPad. Both the iPad and Tab boast 16GB hard drives, but the iPad measures 9.7 inches to the Tab's 7 inches. Does the Tab make up for its smaller physical size with its camera, Flash support and other features lacking on the iPad, or should the Tab be cheaper than its main rival?

You can net a Tab for a penny shy of £500 if you're prepared to commit to a contract with TalkMobile, Carphone Warehouse's own network. To our pleasant surprise, we found that involves a mere 30-day rolling contract, rather than an 18- or 24-month monstrosity -- you simply pay £10 each month for a 1GB data allowance, and you can cancel at any time, with no penalty. You'll even get a free month after you've ponied up your first tenner.

The Tab arrives in shops on 1 November. We expect to see pricing get more competitive in the next two weeks as all the major networks and retailers jockey for price points -- and TalkMobile has set the bar low with its £10 rolling contract. To see how Samsung's slate stacks up against the competition, swipe your way through our face-off between the Tab, iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook.