Samsung Galaxy Tab family finally gets Ice Cream Sandwich

It's taken its sweet time, but Samsung has finally started rolling Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) out to its Galaxy Tab range here in the UK.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 appears to be first up for the OS update, which will finally shed the buggy tablet-only Honeycomb OS it shipped with.

ICS takes a number of the touches introduced in Honeycomb (such as the spiffing multitasking bar) and builds a cohesive OS around it.

You can expect similar updates for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 to follow in short order.

The ICS update itself is a pretty chunky 237.40MB file that can be downloaded through Samsung's yucky Kies software, or directly to the device over the air.

If you've been a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 owner from the start, you should find ICS massively improves the performance of your slate. You should get better battery life out of your tablet, and you should notice general tasks and apps booting up and performing a fair bit swifter.

Of course, Samsung smartphone owners are now looking forward to receiving the next version of Android, Jelly Bean. But, let's not spoil the moment, eh?