Earlier this week the folks from Samsung finally announced their latest tablet to grace the Note lineup, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi, will be hitting US shelves come April 11th for $399. Tomorrow you’ll be able to head to your nearest retail store and take one home, so naturally we have one already to share with you guys. Read on for our initial thoughts, hands-on pictures, and a quick video.
We got our first look at this new 8-inch tablet back at Mobile World Congress in Spain, but that model also doubles as a smartphone and had full phone capabilities included. Sadly the model hitting US shelves tomorrow for $399 does not, and is only WiFi. Not only that, but it also comes at a pretty penny compared to something like the Nexus 7 for $199. Read on to see if that price is worth it.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is no slouch though, and it rocks some pretty impressive specs all around to make up for the difference. Some of those include a beautiful 8-inch 1280 x 800 HD WACOM display with full S-Pen stylus capabilities. It is also running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and a powerful 1.6 GHz quad-core processor. Samsung’s added 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a decent camera on back and front for good measure.
Along with a dedicated home button, S-Pen stylus for some amazing content creation and more you have a 5 megapixel rear camera, and 1.3 front for video chatting. The 4,600 mAh battery should give you plenty of usage time too, but we’ll report back on that after our full review. For now see what it can do from our quick video below.
Thoughts
So far we’re really enjoying this new slate from Samsung, although we wish it had front facing speakers like the Galaxy Tab and Note 10 both do. It feels extremely nice in your hand, is lightweight, and a joy to use. That being said, we’re unsure why Samsung continues to offer this extremely cheap feeling plastic. Even on a tablet that costs this much. It’s essentially a massive Galaxy S 4 in a way, and we’d love some more durable materials.
Aside from not being the biggest fan of the continued use of plastic, it does make for a lightweight and comfortable experience. Whether we were drawing with the S-Pen, multitasking using the multi-window premium suite feature, or playing games. We’ve also ran a quick few benchmarks so you can see just how fast this thing is. Take a peek below.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 certainly is a nice slate, but we were hoping for a slightly lower price point if we weren’t getting the voice and phone features. The bezel is also a bit big for our taste too. For those that love the idea of the S-Pen stylus but don’t want the large Note 10.1 or a phone as big as the Note II, we suggest taking a look at the Note 8.0 in stores tomorrow.
If you have any questions relating to the Note 8.0 drop us a comment below. Stay tuned for more details and a review coming up quick.
[device id=6600]
presume that last sentence was supposed to read
For those that love the idea of the S-Pen stylus but don’t want the large Note 10 or a phone as big as the Note II …..
I’ve thought the same thing since seeing this leak… that bezel is just too big. I have the Note II, this just looks like they just stretche the note2 image and called it done.
I’m probably going to wait for them to refresh the Note 10 range
Ah yes, exactly.
I was hoping to possibly buy this as a birthday present for my little brother, but at that price point, might as well go with a lightly used or refurb 10.1. I guess it kinda makes sense, as it’s the exact same hardware as the 10.1 but 2 inches smaller, but still…they priced it completely out of the market. The only people interested in this will be people who want a pen but who think the 10.1 is too big.
Please let us know if the galaxy note 8.0 3g+wifi will be available to US andhow much will it cost.
Please let us know if when will the galaxy note 8.0 3g+wifi will be available to the US retail stores and how much will it cost?
I agree with you because I have one of these devices and I do not get the HYPE about the Aluminium Feel either, Polycarbonate is more for giving.