Samsung’s 8-inch competitor of iPad mini — the Galaxy Note 8.0 — was officially unveiled for public viewing at MWC 2013, just a couple of days ago. The feature that differentiates this tablet from other 8-inch tablets is the ability to make phone calls. Yes, Galaxy Note 8.0 is a calling tablet.
Let me tell you, with Galaxy Note 8.0, Samsung has brought nothing new to the table — Note 8.0 looks like Galaxy S III and features hardware specs that are more or less like Galaxy Note II. Like all other 2013 Samsung devices, Note 8.0 has chrome-plated edges and a not-so-great-looking plastic build.
Complete official tech specs of Galaxy Note 8.0 are listed below.
DIMENSIONS & PHYSICAL SPECS
- 210.8 mm x 135.9 mm x 7.95 mm
- 338 grams
DISPLAY SCREEN
- 8-inch TFT screen
- WXGA (1280 x 800) pixel resolution
- 189 ppi pixel density
PROCESSING UNIT
- 1.6 GHz quad core Exynos 4 processor
- ARM Cortex-A9 chipset
GRAPHICS UNIT
- Mali-400 MP
RAM
- 2 GB
CAMERA
- 5-megapixel AF rear camera
- 1.3-megapixel front camera
- Full HD 1080p video recording @ 30 fps
INTERNAL STORAGE
- 32/64 GB internal storage — expandable up to 64 GB via a microSD card
OPERATING SYSTEM
- Android v4.1.2 Jelly Bean
OTHER FEATURES
- HSPA+ mobile network
- aGPS + GLONASS (3G)
- High-speed connectivity — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
- S-Pen apps
- 4,600 mAh battery
The tablet is scheduled to go on sale sometime in Q2, this year. As I said before, Galaxy Note 8.0 is a new sized tablet with neither a new design nor new hardware specs, so why would anyone want to buy this tablet. This question would be answered when Samsung puts a price tag on this iPad mini competitor.
