First Impressions of Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 tablet
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 7:43PM 
Text and photo by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
I had the opportunity to check out Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 tablet earlier today during a session with Samsung executives focusing on their and SAFE and Knox solutions. The Galaxy Note 8 fits squarely in between the Galaxy Note II and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. It also competes directly with the hugely successful Apple iPad mini and the famously disruptive Google Nexus 7 tablets. Here are my impressions on Samsung's midrange tablet.
The Galaxy Note 8 that was showed off at the Samsung event was a pre-production model. This means the hardware and more importantly, the software, were not final. I only really got to test the physical aspect of the device as well as the browser and the S Pen.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 gets a lot of its design cues from the Note II as well as the Samsung Galaxy III. It is thin, feels very light and has the same curved glass and rounded corners that we've come to expect from Samsung's recent mobile products. The user interface and operating system is similar if not identical to what one would experience in the Galaxy Note II but blown up to fill the larger display. Speaking of the display, it was bright, clear and vivid. I had no problems reading websites.
This isn't the first tablet of its kind to come from Samsung. The 7, 7.9 and 8-inch form factor is actually the most iterated from Samsung. Their first Android Tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, was a 7-inch tablet and since then Samsung's been pumping out various generations of a mid-sized Android tablet.
What's different this time around, aside from lower pricing (hopefully), is the integration of the S Pen as an additional input method and the inclusion of various applications and functions that use the note-taking aspect of the device.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 feels good in the hand, it gives the impression that it is lighter than the iPad mini (it is not) as well as the Nexus 7. But those devices feel more substantial and rigid, specially the iPad mini with its stainless steel body which gives it a far more premium feel.
That said, the Galaxy Note 8 is designed to be easier on the hand for longer one-handed use like for e-book reading or looking at photos or videos. Samsung's AMOLED screen is, as expected, bright and crisp although images are saturated and treated with a candy-like tones.
I only briefly used the S Pen and found it to be accurate and the tablet was receptive to the device, which uses Wacom technology that accepts various pressure points for more accurate drawing.
The S Pen itself tucks in neatly at the bottom of the Note 8. The Galaxy Note we tried out had a nice rubbery cover case that hugs the back of the tablet and covers the front.
The Galaxy Note 8 looks and feels exactly like a larger Galaxy Note II. It has similar specs and will likely perform on par with the Galaxy Note II running similar software. The larger size does leverage what one can achieve with the S Pen and there's definite potential here for consumers as well as business users.
The real limitation of the S Pen has been that it only works with Samsung apps and this feature can really shine if third party applications will enable Pen input. Hopefully they'll come around now that there are a bunch of S Pen capable devices.
The Galaxy Note 8 offers tablet users a different type of device. One that's primed for reading and consumption but will also attract users who are open to using a more precise S Pen as input for content creation. Pricing is key, the Note 8 has to be competitive with the leading 7-inch tablets in the market today.
Samsung is releasing the Galaxy Note 8 as a WiFi-only model. Pricing and actual availability have not yet been announced.
Reader Comments (3)
Does it use the Phone UI or the Tablet UI? It looks like the phone UI and that bums me, but just a bit. Easy enough to customize.
It was the phone UI, identical to the Note 2
I have used both Samsung tablets and BlackBerry. The Playbook has some limiting execution issues with the current iteration, but thete is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is a vastly superior os to anything from android and samsung to date. If the coming update to bb10 address those issues I can't imagine choses Android/Samsung over BB Playbook.