Upcoming Galaxy Note 8.0 Pictured In The Wild, Looks Like Giant Galaxy S III [Image]

By Killian Bell

Samsung vice president JK Shin has confirmed that the company will be announcing the Galaxy Note 8.0 at Mobile World Congress next month, but you don’t need to wait until then to see what it’ll look like. Thanks to these pictures of the device out in the wild, we can see that the iPad mini competitor looks a lot like a giant Galaxy S III, with a traditional button setup that’s unlike other Galaxy tablets.

Samsung’s Galaxy tablets have traditionally used on-screen buttons like those that were introduced with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. But the new Galaxy Note 8.0 won’t. Instead, it’ll have a physical home button, plus two capacitive touch buttons — all of which sit beneath the display.

It’s unclear why Samsung’s chosen to go with the traditional button setup for this device, but as its Galaxy smartphones prove, it does prefer these to virtual, on-screen buttons. The advantage, of course, is that users can enjoy all 8 inches of that display, and they won’t lose some screen space to the navigation bar.

The pictures also prove that the Galaxy Note 8.0 will have both front- and rear-facing cameras, a relatively slim form factor, and a speaker above its display — like the Galaxy Tab 7. Its rumored specifications include a 1280×800 display resolution, a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of internal storage — expandable via microSD card.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 won’t be a high-end Android tablet, then, but it does have all it needs to compete with Apple’s hugely popular iPad mini. It’s a similar size, and it offers everything the iPad mini does in terms of hardware. In fact, the Galaxy Note 8.0 has better specifications when it comes to display, processor, and RAM.

If you’re a fan of the Galaxy S III, then, and you’re looking for a new mid-range Android tablet, it looks like you’re going to be more than pleased with the Galaxy Note 8.0. The device will get its official unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, and Cult of Android will be there to bring you the latest.