Honeycomb and ICS aren't as smooth as iOS, but most of the lag that you're experiencing on your tablet is coming from Samsung's terrible software and not Android itself. The Galaxy Tabs are an embarrassment.
ASUS also makes far less modifications to the OS, too. Their devices are very close to stock Android with just some small additions, some new apps and wallpapers and whatever.
It still irritates me that I bought a Samsung specifically because I heard they were easy to root compared to other vendors, but didn't realise that had changed in recent months -- or that they were laggy. I should've gone for a new-gen ICS device instead; an S3 perhaps.
I'm still enjoying the Note's screen size and the Android app ecosystem, though. There are some great apps out there to play with.