The iPad 2 comes out on top again, mainly because there are still few tablet apps available for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Android app quality remains generally inferior. But for the underlying apps management capabilities, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the edge, thanks to the widgets and notifications capabilities of the Android OS; you feel their omission on an iPad 2 after you've used an Android device for a while. Plus, the Galaxy Tab's ability to show all running apps and what they're doing is an impressive feature the iPad 2 doesn't match.

Both Apple and Google are strong forces behind and other modern browser technologies, so it's no surprise that the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 both offer capable Web browsers. Although neither is as HTML5-savvy as their desktop versions, the iPad 2 has nearly closed the gap with Mac OS X. Based on the , the iPad 2's mobile Safari scored 206 versus 228 for desktop Safari (Version 5.05), versus the iPad 1's score of 196. (If you upgrade the iPad 1 to iOS 4.3, its score rises to 206.) But the iPad 2 remains behind the Galaxy Tab 10.1's mobile Chrome, which racked up 218 out of 300 points (better than Android 2.2 smartphones' 176 points), and way behind desktop Chrome (Version 12.0.742), which scored 291.

I didn't notice a qualitative difference between the two tablets' browsers other than greater font support on the iPad 2 in my admittedly subjective browsing. However, an associate who tested the devices had screen redraw issues when using Facebook on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

For HTML and JavaScript performance, based on the benchmarks, the iPad 2 scored 808 versus 508 for the iOS 4.3 iPad 1, and 430 for the iOS 4.2 iPad 1. By contrast, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 scored 985 -- 22 percent faster than the iPad 2. By comparison, desktop Safari on my scored 2,812, while the Firefox browser in the scored just 360 in and use. Peacekeeper stresses media and JavaScript processing, so the indicated speed differences aren't apparent in more text-and-graphics-heavy sites.