Well, my megacorp ran an employee deal for iPads, and it turns out they found my buying price. I ordered a 32 gig iPad 1 wifi, brand new (not refurbished), for $277 including tax and 2-day shipping. I already had an otter box defender case sitting around that I got free at a trade show. I got my iPad yesterday. Typing on it now.
Compared to the Galaxy Tab:
The iPad is better for surfing the Internet. The screen is larger, and web sites default to the full versions, instead of the mobile versions, as they do on the galaxy tab.
The Galaxy Tab has a noticeably higher resolution screen. Text looks significantly crisper. Although the Galaxy Tab screen is smaller, movies play only slightly larger on the iPad screen due to the cinematic aspect ratio of the Galaxy Tab, and the higher resolution screen makes movies look better on the Galaxy.
Having streaming Netflix on the iPad (which will never be available on my Galaxy Tab), is a huge benefit of the iPad.
As an e-reader, I prefer the Galaxy Tab. It's screen is about the same size as an average book-page, and it's far lighter than the iPad. Combined with crisper-looking text, this makes the Galaxy Tab an excellent e-reader.
For typing (anything) the iPad far exceeds the capabilities of the Galaxy Tab. The keyboard is much closer to full-size, and I can type quickly and accurately, though not as quick as with a real keyboard. I would not want to type this post on the Galaxy Tab, but on the iPad, it's manageable. With practice, I could see myself possibly using the iPad to create lengthier documents, which I would not do on the Galaxy Tab. I find reading email and managing my calendar on the Galaxy Tab to be fine, but I would write email on the iPad, which I do not tend to do on the Tab.
The Galaxy Tab has a take-it-with-you-ness, that the iPad does not. The Galaxy Tab is small enough to fit in my pants pockets. I can (and do) take it almost anywhere. The iPad is large enough to be inconvenient to carry around many places. It's almost as if the iPad is a little laptop, and the Galaxy Tab is like a big smart phone. I was on a plane yesterday, sitting in the half-a-seat that was left to me by the overweight gentleman to my right. I was able to use my Galaxy Tab during the flight, but the iPad would have been too large.
Those are my initial impressions. Overall, the iPad is a wonderful device. I was planning to wait for iPad 3 to come out (hoping for a retina display), but the deal was too good to pass up.