Despite Google’s Android version for tablet (presumably Honeycomb which is 3.0) hasn’t been launched yet, Wall Street Journal has taken the initiative to get into the tablet form factor before its official blessing from Google. That’s because current Android 2.2 and below are not optimized for tablet devices, thus not utilizing the extra screen estate.

Well, the WSJ’s Android app is somewhat very similar to its iPad variant, albeit slimmed down to fit most 7-inches, unlike the iPad’s massive tablet screen. Once logged in with a subscription account, users are greeted by the same start screen for choosing your papers, which are automatically downloaded at launch. Naturally, once the papers are on your device, you can read them regardless of internet connectivity, and you can save your favourites to a dedicated area there for quick access as well. Switching from a section to another is as simple swiping horizontally or using the menu prompted by tapping the top bar.

Now, the iPad obviously has a bigger screen compared to those tablets like Galaxy Tab, and thus the Android version has all the things in a single column on a single page, unlike in the iPad where there’s several columns and sidebars spread across pages horizontally.

Another big variance between the two is the way video clips are embedded in the articles. In short: it’s not for the short-tempered — it’s bad enough that the articles take almost twice as long to load, but you’re also forced to watch them in full screen only, unlike the iPad version which lets you watch them right inside the article (like HTML5 videos in iOS’ Safari) or in fullscreen mode. WSJ stated that this is more to do with certain limitations on the Android platform’s coding itself. Let’s hope that this will be fixed in the upcoming Android updates for tablets.

Read all about it at Engadget.com