Galaxy Note 8

Why I loathe an iPhablet

Talk of an Apple phablet dates back to March 2012 when a pretty credible Japanese blog mentioned an unreleased iOS device with a five-inch 1,600-by-960 Retina screen which may or may not be the 4.8-inch iPhone 6 some analysts see coming in 2014.

The phablet, I’m sure you know, was popularized against all odds by Samsung of South Korea, its jumbo-sized Galaxy Note devices selling millions of units (ten million as of August 2012).

Just yesterday, the company released its latest iPad mini contender, the eight-inch Galaxy Note. In addition to the S-Pen, an IR blaster and a quad core processor, Samsung’s baby outsmarts the iPad mini with its ability to make phone calls over cellular networks. The question is, would you dare use such a giant ‘cell phone’ – and I’m using the term loosely – in public?

Samsung takes aim at iPad mini with new Galaxy Note 8.0

It looks like the rumors were true. Samsung sent out a press release last night announcing the launch of its new Galaxy Note 8.0. The 8-inch tablet is clearly aimed right at the iPad mini, which has done very well thus far for Apple.

And it certainly came prepared to play. As expected, the slate features a 1280×800 (720p) display—just a hair better than the mini—a quad core processor, 2GB of RAM, and oh yeah, it makes phone calls. More details after the break…

Samsung to take on Apple with mini Galaxy Note

Samsung of South Korea will later this month take another crack at dethroning the tablet leader Apple by going after the Cupertino firm’s iPad mini, a 7.9-inch mini tablet computer released on November 2, 2012 and starting at $320 for the Wi-Fi only version with sixteen gigabytes of storage.

The new Note reportedly has a 720p (1,280-by-800) Super Clear LCD screen measuring eight inches diagonally and comes with Samsung’s trademark S-Pen. Hardware specifications allegedly aren’t that special as Samsung is possibly using cheaper components in order to undercut the iPad mini on price…