Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Tablet: iPad Mini Rival

Samsung continues to wage war against rival Apple, matching it product-for-product. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the company introduced the Galaxy Note 8, an 8-inch tablet that clearly goes after the Apple iPad Mini. The Note 8 is a high-quality tablet that will surely win over those who want a smaller form factor.

The Note 8 strongly resembles Samsung's current line of smartphones, especially the Galaxy S III. It is made of glossy plastics that are smooth to the touch. It is dense, strong and comfortable to use. The screen includes 1280 x 800 pixels, for a pixel density of 189ppi. It is not the sharpest display ever, but the TFT LCD impresses with its colors and brightness.

The Note 8 is powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor with each core rate at 1.6 GHz. It is paired with 2.GB of RAM and up to 32.GB of on-board storage. The tablet has two cameras: a 5-megapixel main camera and a 1.3-megapixel user-facing camera. The main camera doubles as an HD video camera.

The Note 8 is stuffed with wireless radios. All versions include dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS, and Bluetooth. There will also be cellular models available, but Samsung did not provide details on which network operators would offer the Note 8. At least one U.S. carrier will sell the Note 8 with LTE on board.

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Looking past the specs, the Note 8 includes software and applications that have previously only been available on the Galaxy Note smartphone and Note 10.1 tablet. This means the S Pen stylus and all the associated apps that go along with it.

For example, Awesome Note provides power users with a to-do list on steroids. The Note 8 also supports dual-viewing mode, which allows users to run two apps on the screen at the same time. Each app appears in its own window, and the size of the app windows themselves can be adjusted. Users can employ the S Pen to pull up secondary menus and use Air View to see previews of links and other content.

The Note 8 includes an IR blaster and a new media searching tool that helps channel surfers find content to watch. Samsung obviously expects owners of the Note 8 to use the device while watching television. The IR blaster also allows the Note 8 to act as a TV remote control.

The Note 8 will arrive sometime during the second quarter of the year; specifics about pricing have yet to be revealed.