Samsung Galaxy Tab on Amazon UK stuns at £799, quickly cut to £680

Amazon UK shook a few feathers today by putting up a shocking £799 price tag on the 16GB Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet computer. The online retailer rapidly cut it to a more reasonable (if still eyewatering) £680.

Various online retailers have already published prices for an unlocked version of the device, but when Amazon UK put up the price as £799 it raised a few eyebrows, as it's much higher than the equivalent £530 16GB iPad with 3G and Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi only iPad can be bought for as little as £429.

The price was quickly cut to £680, a saving of £120 off the recommended retail price. This is exactly the same as the pricing given by fellow UK online retailer eXpansys. But this is for the 16GB version, so heaven knows how much the 32GB one is supposed to be.

We're wary of the pricing, as Amazon UK pulled a very similar stunt with the iPad by putting out prices very early, and in the end they were wrong. The Tab is a smart-looking tablet with a tasty 7-inch screen, powerful specs and Android 2.2, but pricing it that much above an iPad would be market suicide.

From your earlier comments, you agree that £680 is too much for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and £799 would be plain daft. It seems around £500 to £550 would be the sweet spot. And when you consider that ViewSonic will bring out a 7-inch Android 2.2 running tablet for £350 next month, it makes you wonder.

CNET UK reader Martin Turner was particularly critical, saying, "Samsung demonstrate with this product that they are still stuck in the 'old' technology world. You can almost see their reasoning written on the device: this device has more features than the iPad (camera, expandable memory), therefore we can sell it for more money."

It's also difficult to know whether deals attaching the Samsung Galaxy Tab to phone networks would make much difference to pricing. The Tab has 3G but it's not a smart phone, so it won't be sold on expensive tariffs that would subsidise the upfront cost.

We all seem to agree on what price the Samsung Galaxy Tab should be, but will it match what comes out? We wait and see, and we'll be first to tell you about it.