Forget Galaxy Tab. The Samsung’s tablet may offer you some excellent features, but this its existence is destined to be a mere shadow of the iPad. It is still a good device, of course, with an excellent 7-inch display, cameras and many others, but its Android 2.2, is originally designed solely for smartphones and not intended for tablets.

All this will change. In CES Las Vegas, Motorola introduced the first digital tablet with the Android 3.0, Honeycomb, developed specifically for this type of device. In essence, the OS is designed from the outset for tablets, the user interface and every interaction are well optimized for a (relatively) large portable touchscreen display.

The difference is glaring. A video of Android 3.0 posted by Engadget previously showed a sleek, dynamic interface, which can work well on the entire screen surface, with a browser that reminds us of Google Chrome, iGoogle widgets, a launch area that resembles the iPad’s Dock, the integration of the eBooks library and an optimized versions of Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube and Google Maps.

The Motorola Xoom has a 10.1-inch screen (just like the iPad) with a resolution of 1280×800, a 5 megapixel camera capable of recording video in high definition (720p), a 2 megapixel front camera for video conferencing, a storage of 32 GB, 802.11n WiFi, a dual-core 1 GHz Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 3G connection (4G connectivity will be available on summer). The battery life may reach 10 hours, with a weight of 730 grams. Another positive feature of the Motorola Xoom is the Flash support, which is not available on the iPad. Motorola also offers a keyboard and a dock for Xoom, although these will be sold separately. It will be marketed in the United States by Verizon in the first quarter of 2011 at an undisclosed price.

Motorola Xoom isn’t the only tablet in CES Las Vegas, there are other competing products that may also attract your attention.

BlackBerry Playbook (RIM)

The Playbook is one of the tablets that have generated more buzz among attendees at CES and it is warmly welcomed.

The Canadian company introduced two variants: 7-inch and 9.7-inches, which promise to bring a tough competition to the iPad and the Galaxy Tab.

Both are lightweight and come in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions. They run the brand’s own operating system, the Blackberry OS, with Wi-Fi, 3G and Flash. There is no exact date for the launch of Playbook and it has been described as an extension of BlackBerry smartphones.

Toshiba

The Toshiba’s 11.6-inch tablet prototype doesn’t have a name yet, but features two cameras, HDMI connection and Windows 7.

Coby Kyros

An Internet tablet that runs Android 2.3, and available at three sizes, 7, 8 and 10.1 inches, all have 4GB built-in memory expandable to 32 GB and a mini HDMI output. Like many devices presented for the first time at CES 2011, it has 4G connectivity and Wi-Fi.

Panasonic Viera

Panasonic announced its upcoming tablet, the Viera, which will run an Android OS and come in three dimensions, with 10 inches as the largest model. It allows you to transfer content and display it on a television.

Samsung 7

Samsung launches a computer called as Tablet 7 Series, which offers a sliding keyboard and unlike the Galaxy Tab (also a Samsung’s tablet), it uses Windows 7. It comes in two models, 32 and 64 GB of storage, 2 GB RAM, 10.1 inch screen, HDMI port and built-in camera.

Dell Inspiron Duo

This notebook was actually launched in 2010 but it is still worth to talk about it, it has a 10-inch HD touch-screen display, which can be rotated and turns into a tablet

It uses Windows 7 with 2GB of RAM, Intel Atom processor, 320 GB of storage and an integrated camera, not too impressive, but it has the advantage of turning into a real computer and allows you to do many things that are still unpractical on tablets. It is sold in the U.S. for $549.