Although the real value of a tablet comes from its OS and apps, you can't get to them without the hardware they run on. The iPad 2 sports a dual-core 1GHz A5 CPU chip, matching at the spec level the Galaxy Tab's dual-core Nvidia 1GHz Tegra 2 processor; both are based on the . Both tablets offer front and rear cameras (supporting videoconferencing and motion video capture), and they're capable of display mirroring through video-out connector. The iPad comes in both Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi-plus-3G models (which supports 3G tethering), whereas the Galaxy Tab comes only in a Wi-Fi model.
The iPad 2's A5 processor makes quick work of app loading and is generally responsive, such as when panning in Google Earth or parsing documents in iWork Pages. The Galaxy Tab is no slouch, either, with similarly snappy reaction time. I had significantly fewer Android apps with which to test the Galaxy Tab's speed, however, so I can't fully assess app performance across the two tablets. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 does start up from powered-off mode noticeably faster than the iPad 2: 25 seconds versus 35 seconds. (By comparison, my 2011-edition MacBook Pro takes 127 seconds.) In either case, if you're looking for instant-on, let the tablet go to sleep rather than power it down.
The iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 performed similarly in their network usage over Wi-Fi. I did find that the Galaxy Tab usually received emails and updated its calendar slightly more slowly than the iPad 2, even though both were connected to the same Wi-Fi network and pulling from the same Exchange server.
For battery performance, I found that the iPad 2 lasted longer than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 -- 9 or 10 hours versus the Galaxy Tab's 7 or 8 -- in regular use with Wi-Fi enabled. In light use, their work time stretched another hour. Note that the Galaxy Tab starts chewing through battery power the more you use Wi-Fi, whereas the iPad 2 seems better able to handle sustained Wi-Fi connections without draining the battery. Also, the iPad 2 charges much more quickly than the Galaxy Tab -- two or three times as fast, depending on whether the devices are powered down.