[cutterjohn42]

For c. $500(3G is more IIRC, also going to have to wait as they're just now starting to ship out December orders) a Notion Ink Adam with PixelQi screen(useable outdoors in bright/sunny conditions) would just be so much of a better deal IMNHO. Doesn't have the market, but that's because it's not really an overgrown phone and Honeycomb still isn't available, but it does come with Tegra 2 goodness and my gTablet runs flash nearly as well as my notebook does(Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz/ATI 4850 mobility/4GB RAM). The drawback ATM still being drivers that aren't quite all the way there yet for video playback(if you care), ATM really only doing up to 720p decently, and a crappier screen on the gTablet but I was concerned about Notion Ink when they were taking orders and charging a month-and-a-half before shipping anything.

There's also the XOOM coming out, but it'll be locked down until it gets cracked if you care and an unknown screen quality. (Tegra 2 again... more dual core cortex-a9 goodness...)

Then there's the Nook Color. "Nicer" 7" form factor IMO as it's just generally easier to handle, and applying some relatively simple hacks can get most of them up to nearly the clock rate of a Galaxy Tab although it still lacks 3G, camera, mic, and has a "weaker" integrated GPU, the PowerVR SGX530 v. PowerVR SGX540 in the Tab.

Overall I still have to give the better "deal" award to anything mentioned here over the 3G Tab as at $500 it's just still too expensive for what it is. IF it were $300 w/o contract then I'd say yeah, that's not too bad of a price for a cortex-a8 tablet, or if it were $400 with a PixelQi screen... (There are Chinese cortex-a8 tablets w/GPS for c. $215(so we already know that their pricing is inflated a great deal), and the Archos 70 & 101 for $270-300 if you go for base models... Tablet pricing ATM just seems to be based on hype IMO rather than intrinsic value esp given that when I went to look at gTablets in the stores the displays were wedged between two cheaper netbooks(ASUS($250) & Toshiba($300) at Sears IIRC and Acer($300) & ASUS($250) at Staples v. $379.99 gTablet arguably less capable overall and certainly cheaper to manufacture))

(If you even think about the Notion Ink Adam go watch the engadget video and any others that might've turned up as, personally, I detest their custom UI much more than I do the TapNTap UI used in the stock Viewsonic gTablet firmware... Their custom UI just looks cumbersome to use.)

[EDIT]
adding some battery life of ones that I own/have owned:
Pandigital Novel(white): c. 6-8h w/occasional WiFi (usually charge every 1-2d)
Nook Color: c. 6-8h w/occasional WiFi (usually charge every 1-2d)
Viewsonic gTablet: c. 9-11h w/fairly heavy WiFi (usually charge 3-4d)
Augen Gentouch78: 4-6h w/moderate WiFi (just tossing in for comparison, charged every day at least once)
Sony PRS-505: probably 96+h of usage(eInk, but hey... why not usually charge once every other week or so)

I wouldn't really recommend anything other than the Nook Color as a reader/web browser from the above(yeah WPDN is really super cheap but it's slow...) and the gTablet while being a champ at battery life and flash has a pretty crappy screen to most people(I got used to it and it's fine viewed straight on), and well eInk just isn't going to be much user other than as a reader even with WiFi/3G since screen updates are just too sssslllloooowwww...

No idea what the other devices battery runtimes are like or will be, and don't want to quote based off videos, etc. w/o having one myself to test as AFAICT I'm seeing less batt runtime from my NC than some claim, which IMO is it's biggest drawback as a reader esp. if they encourage leaving WiFi on constantly or even just sleeping it rather than shutting it down when not in use. (I shut my NC down and only enable WiFi when I want to look something up quickly ATM, but I'll have more data from heavier WiFi use once spring really hits and it starts to get something like evenly remotely nice outside... i.e. it'll be used as much as a tablet as a reader...)
[/EDIT]