So, at the beginning of last month Vodacom launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v in South Africa. And, of course, I got one. And, in short, it’s awesome.

Having a tablet computer has just about replaced my netbook. It’s much easier to hold this in my lap while watching TV. It’s also easy to cart around, although only after purchasing a leather cover for it. I don’t think that it could survive a fall without some sort of protection.

My favourite use for the device at the moment is using it as a Kindle reader. The software basically transforms it into a colour Kindle, with access to the Kindle store and all of my purchased books. Handy.

The tablet has a 3G sim card installed to allow internet access wherever I don’t have access to wireless, which is also fantastic. I’m looking forward to going on holiday this month with just the tablet and no netbook.

There is an 8 mega pixel camera on the back of the tablet for taking photographs – that’s better than my cellphone and the same as my small point and shoot camera. Ridiculous! It feels a little silly trying to take pictures with this thing – it has been compared to taking a picture with a clipboard! But I do have a particularly handy use for it – taking pictures of music at band practice when there aren’t enough copied to go around!

The tablet also comes with software that allows editing of Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. What a handy feature! It also integrates with Dropbox, so after a little bit of fiddling, I now have access to all of my work documents – wherever I happen to be. Now I can look up quotes and prices while sitting with a customer. Very cool.

The battery seems to be pretty good. I can, on average, get about two days of intermittent use out of it, which is better than my cellphone! The battery doesn’t last quite as long when I’ve been using it as a Kindle reader. Games can also drain the battery pretty quickly. Charging is slow, and takes about 5 hours. So that mainly takes place at night while I’m sleeping.

All-in-all, this is the most exciting gadget I have had the fortune of owning. Can’t do without it anymore!

Yes, this is the phone that I am using at the moment! And it’s the best phone I’ve ever used. Sorry, iPhone.

Techradar gave the phone a 5-star rating, and you can read their review here.