For Samsung, a Galaxy Note 8.0 brings it back full circle to the Tab

The leaked Galaxy Note 8.0 image from Sammobile.comBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

There's a lot of buzz surrounding Samsung and its upcoming Galaxy Note 8.0, a photo of that supposed device appears above. The 8-inch tablet will be the third Note in what is becoming the most popular subclass of the Galaxy line. Not only is the Note 8 clearly aimed at rival Apple's 7.9" iPad mini, it also brings Samsung full-circle in terms of screen sizes since the Galaxy Tab 7 was where the company first began their aggressive tablet takeover.

If there's anything Samsung truly 'owns' without question, it is the concept of a 7-inch tablet. They were first to market with the Galaxy Tab back in 2010 (feels like ages ago) and as the first modern tablet to challenge the first iPad, they were also proponents of the handheld tablet geared towards reading, gaming and casual computing. While not cheap at $600, the Samsung Galaxy Tab paved the way for the Nooks, Kinde Fires, Kobos and other 7-inch coloured tablet/ eReader  devices running a smartphone OS.

Expected to debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, the Galaxy Note 8.0 was an expected move from Samsung, who have devices in every conceivable screen size between 3.5 to 11.6 - inches.

Samsung has also taken their not so popular or profitable 10-inch tablet and 'Note-ified' it adding stylus functionality and updated hardware to skew it towards a different user base or at least separate it from the cesspool of me-too 10-inch Android tablets in the market.

Same thing with the Galaxy Note 8.0. It simply picks ups where various Tab 7's fell short and now has a viable target to compete with in the iPad mini. In terms of specs, the leak says it will have a powerful 1.6Ghz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM,  16 or 32GB of storage with a microSD slot, an  8.0”1280×800 TFT (Super Clear LCD) display, possible 3G and HSPA+ capability and will run Android Jelly Bean from the outset. Of course, we should expect a stylus in there. 

Pricing and availability will be key factors on whether or not the Note 8.0 can take a chunk out of the iPad mini's popularity. But the Note 8.0's added advantage is that can already bank on the Galaxy Note I and II's popularity to keep users interested.

Given that this is a leak and nothing is final, it will still be intriguing to see if Samsung can go toe to toe with Apple on yet another segment of the ever expanding mobile market.

Source: @Clarificatearg via Sammobile.com