The Low-Down
Samsung's new Galaxy Note 8.0, which hits stores on April 11, is a Android tablet with an 8-inch screen. Like its smaller and larger brothers, the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II and 10.1-inch Galaxy Note 10.1, the Note 8.0 uses the company's EMR (electromagnetic resonance) S-Pen stylus, which works with a Wacom digitizer layer beneath the screen. It's a compelling midsize tablet, but the price is a bit rich, considering the competition.
Hardware
Samsung may be the most market-reactive company on the planet. After many in the tech press predicted its demise, the original Galaxy Note turned out to be a hit. Then the iPad Mini blazed a trail in the near-8-inch-screen category. Combine those two developments and you get the Galaxy Note 8.0. Incredibly, Samsung already has a tablet playing in the 7-inch category?part of its Galaxy Tab series. Samsung has so flooded the market with tablets that, if you include the Galaxy S 4 (which is technically a phone with a 5-inch screen), the only screen size from 5 to 10 inches that the company has neglected is 9 inches.
That said, 8 inches does seem to be the screen sweet spot. The Note 8.0 is comfortable to hold in the hand, has plenty of screen real estate to scribble on, offers plenty of battery life, and is perfect for movie watching. In typical Samsung style, the hardware is handsome without being remarkable. The Note 8.0 is slightly wider, taller, and thicker than the iPad Mini, yet the plastic case makes its construction feel cheaper than Apple's cool-milled aluminum. The 1280 x 800?pixel screen has a slightly higher resolution than its Apple rival, but the different is insignificant given the Note's slightly larger screen and wider aspect ratio. Still, images look crisp, if lacking the razor-sharp quality of the high-pixel-density screens that have become the norm lately.
Aside from the S Pen, the hardware feature that most differentiates the Note 8.0 from the iPad is the infrared emitter that enables the Note's WatchOn remote control functionality (more about that in a bit). Embedded IR seems to be a trend in mobile electronics?the new HTC One has it too. Strangely, it's a data-transmission feature that dates back to the Palm Pilot.
Software
The Note 8.0 runs the Android Jelly Bean OS, but it is obscured beneath a thick coating of Samsung's own TouchWiz Nature UX and augmented even further by specialized S Pen software. Some of the TouchWiz features are inspired, including the pop-out thumb-scrollable menu of frequently used apps, and the MultiWindow mode that allows you to run multiple apps at the same time.
The S Pen works with the same specialized S Note apps found on the Galaxy Note II oversize phone. Like that device, the Note 8.0 also has handwriting recognition that works pretty well and "hover over" functionality that delivers pop-up previews of files and photos (although this is somewhat inconsistent?sometimes info pops up, sometimes it doesn't).
Samsung also has a Reading Mode that optimizes the backlight and tint for reading. Curiously, though, this doesn't work with the Kindle for Android app. The Note 8.0 also includes an S Pen-friendly version of Flipboard, in which hovering over a tile launches a pop-up menu that lets you jump directly to a story.
Like the new HTC One, the Note 8.0 includes an app that turns the device into a universal remote control. Samsung's app is called WatchON, and like HTC's offering it includes a recommendation engine that checks what is on TV now and can offer suggestions based on your preferences. WatchON also delivers up content from Hulu, Blockbuster, and Netflix and can play that content on the device. It's an interesting way to get users started on an integrated second-screen experience. For the moment, WatchON seems to be focused on content discovery, but in the not-too-distant future, I expect many tabletmakers will be looking for a way to use these devices to steal away viewers' attention to streaming video. Broadcasters and cable operators, beware.
Samsung also includes a lot of other productivity goodies such as Polaris Office, which lets you edit and create Microsoft Office documents, and Awesome Note, a slick-looking to-do list manager, plus 50 GB of free Dropbox storage for two years. And if all of your friends also have Samsung devices, the Note 8.0's Group Play feature lets you share music and video and collaborate on documents.
There's so much software stuffed onto the Note that it can get a bit confusing when you just want to play a song, look at a picture, watch a video, or surf the Web. Do I use Music Hub, Music Player, or Play Music? Do I use Play Movies & TV, Video Player, or WatchON? Do I use the Internet app or Chrome? Extra choices aren't always helpful when you just want to get something done.
Performance
With its 1.6-GHz quad-core processor and 2 GB of RAM, the Note 8.0 is fast and snappy, with no performance lags in our testing. The screen is fine for reading and video watching but a bit disappointing when viewed next to high-pixel-density screens such as the full-size iPad. (It's worth mentioning, by the way, that the Note is a formidable video player, with built-in support for MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, and DivX.) The 4600-millamp battery is impressive; we made it through an entire weekend without recharging. But the Note's cameras?5-megapixel on the back, 1.3-megapixel on the front?are letdowns. Low-light photos were universally disappointing.
On the whole, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is a likable, useful tablet with impressive performance. It would be a no-brainer purchase were it not for the price: Samsung wants $400 for it. That's $70 more than the baseline 16 GB iPad mini, and $200 more than a 7-inch Nexus 7. Maybe some folks are really into the S Pen technology, but I have a hard time believing that a stylus merits a 20 percent markup. It's a shame, too, because at $300, the Galaxy Note 8.0 would be a pretty compelling device.
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