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Screen Size

8 inches

Screen Resolution

1280x800 pixels

Processor

1.6 GHz Exynos 4400 (Quad-Core)

Ram

2 GB DDR2 SDRAM

Hard Drive

16 GB

Graphics processor

Mali 400 MP

Back/Front Camera

5 Megapixels/1.3 Megapixels

Battery

4,600mAH (Advertised 7 hours)

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True to its name, the device is around 8 inches wide and remarkably thin (8 mm). At around 340 grams, the tablet is pleasant to hold although it would have been nice if a textured body were implemented to prevent the device from slipping. Still, the white plastic body casing feels sturdy and the smooth body is definitely not a deal breaker for majority of users.

On the sides of the device are a power/sleep button, volume adjustment buttons, microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a standard microUSB slot. You will really want to take advantage of the microSD slot if you plan on loading lots of media onto the device because although the tablet comes with 16 GB of storage, the tablet's operating system and default apps do eat up roughly half of this amount.

With its quad-core processor, the tablet has plenty of juice to run graphic intensive apps or run multiple productivity apps simultaneously without sign of slowdown. The multi-window feature allows you to have a split view screen of two apps at the same time. This doesn't work for every app, but for the multi-tasker fanatics among us, this feature just might be the lifesaver.

Its 8-inch screen is large enough to watch movies and read without squinting, but small enough so you don't feel like you are carrying a brick around when you are on the go. A resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels provide more than enough to guarantee a seamless media experience (To do a rough comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Pro I am using to type up this review also has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels too! Yikes!).

The battery life of the device was doubtlessly impressive. Although advertised only being able to last around 7 hours, we were able to use it for around 9 hours ranging from medium to heavy usage within a span of two days. This was without the battery saving feature, so turning this option on will give you even more juice by sacrificing some performance power.

The built in main camera on the back is acceptable but not breathtaking. With a resolution of 5 megapixels, you definitely don't want to be snapping your wedding or grad photos with these, but they will do fine for the average Facebook upload. For the price you're paying, they could be better.

Finally, the crme de la crme feature of the Galaxy Note 8.0 is its built in stylus support. This isn't just one of those cheap pens with a rubber tip which you use as a substitute to your finger. The "S-Pen," as Samsung likes to call it, is a stylus that provides the user the ability to write or draw accurately on the tablet with ease. The Airview option enables the Note 8.0 to detect the nub of the pen before it even touches the screen. Hovering over items long enough will give you an information pop-up or open a window. Other useful features include OCR handwriting recognition, pen pressure sensitivity and a lot more. Touch input is turned off when the pen nub comes close to the screen so you can rest your palm freely on the screen without worry about messing up your writing or drawings. Skeptical at first, we were surprised at the amount of precision we were able to scribble on the tablet. The stylus is easy to use and can be used to quickly annotate documents and images and is understandably the key reason for the higher price tag for the tablet. For the productivity ninjas out there this is a must-have feature that competing tablets lack.

Galaxy Note 8.0

Nexus 7

iPad mini

Dimensions (inches)

5.35x 0.31 x 8.30

4.72 x 0.41 x 7.81

5.28 x 0.28 x 7.87

Screen Resolution

1280 x 800

1280 x 800

1024 x 768

Processor

1.6 GHz Exynos 4400

1.2 GHz Nvidia Tegra

2.4 GHz Apple A5

Cores

4

4

2

Ram

2 GB DDR2

1 GB DDR3

1 GB DDR2

Hard Drive/Expansion

16 GB / Yes (64 GB)

16 GB / None

16 GB / None

Stylus Input

Yes

No

No

Battery Life

7 hours

10 hours

10 hours

Price

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Screen Resolution - The note 8.0 has a higher resolution than the iPad mini - making the Note 8.0's screen look smoother in comparison. The Nexus 7's screen looks slightly smoother than both tablets because of its smaller screen but same resolution as the Note 8.0. However, these differences are hardly noticeable to the naked eye.

Processor/Ram - The Note 8.0 scores higher than either tablets in these categories; especially versus the iPad Mini, which is still carrying a dual core processor. Because the Note 8.0 boasts more RAM and a higher processor general performance will be better.

Hard drive - All three tablets don't have a ton of space for the lowest pricing options. What's great about the Note 8.0 is that you can expand this space by up to 64 GB!

Stylus Input - Once again, one of the top highlight of the Note 8.0 is the stylus - the main selling point of the tablet.

Battery Life - Here, the Note 8.0 suffers a tiny bit. Generally speaking, you will be able to casually use the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini half a day to a day longer than you would be able to on the Note 8.0. Unless you are constantly outdoors with no access to a power outlet, this should not be much of a problem though.

Price - From the price, you can definitely tell the Note 8.0 was meant to be a high class tablet. At the time of writing, the Note 8.0 is $70 more expensive to the iPad mini and a whopping $150 more expensive than the Nexus 7. A good way to understand the price is like this -- you are paying around the same amount as you would for the iPad mini for this tablet. The premium that you pay is for the S Pen integration.

Pros

Cons

* Outstanding S-Pen integration

* High price tag due to S-Pen integration

* Easy to hold/lightweight

* Excellent multi-tasking capabilities

* Medium-long battery life

* Well rounded multi-purpose tablet

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is a great tablet and by great we mean excellent. True to Samsung's advertisements, the Note 8.0 proves itself to be the jack-of-all-trades - the Swiss Army Knife of tablets. Whether you are watching a movie, playing games or jotting down meeting notes while checking your e-mail at the same time, the tablet performs exceedingly well for any of these purposes. Although the S-pen is marketed an excessive amount by Samsung since this feature is what makes the tablet stand out, it would be an excellent tablet without it too.

Overall, the Note 8.0 is well designed for those that desire the S-Pen feature as this feature alone is going to be what make you have to shell out a few dozen more bucks. Even if you know you will seldom use the S-Pen feature, the Note 8.0 is still and exceedingly impressive tablet.