Galaxy Note 8.0 headed to AT&T ‘in the coming weeks’

Samsung’s Galaxy Note smartphones have had a huge amount of success, so it makes sense that the company would want to try to bring the branding over to its tablet lineups. We’ve already seen the Galaxy Note 10.1 here in the United States on Verizon, and another carrier model looks to be coming soon.

AT&T has announced that it will begin to offer the Galaxy Note 8.0 with LTE capabilities “in the coming weeks”. Pricing details and specific availability information were left out, unfortunately. The WiFi only Galaxy Note 8.0 is offered for $399 stateside, so we can expect the LTE model to come in at at about $100-ish more than that.

As far as specs go, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is packing a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4410 processor paired with 2GB of RAM, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay. The main selling point is of course the S Pen stylus, for which TouchWiz actually offers some great optimizations. Other specs include WiFi, LTE, GPS, BlueTooth 4.0, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a compass, and a hefty 4,600mAh battery.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 also features the WatchON capability, which lets you search for live and on demand video content to watch on either the tablet or big screen TV.

Price will be the deciding factor here, because as we noted in our review roundup, many people said even the WiFi only model was a tad too expensive.

AT&T*, the U.S. leader in 4G LTE-connected tablets, and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) announced today the addition of the Samsung Galaxy Note® 8.0 to AT&T’s portfolio of connected products. The 4G LTE-connected Galaxy Note 8.0 will be available exclusively with AT&T in the coming weeks.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 runs on AT&T 4G LTE, which currently covers more than 200 million people in the U.S.; with plans to expand to cover 300 million people by the end of 2014. In a report by independent testing organization RootMetrics, AT&T’s 4G LTE network was called “blazing fast.” The report found AT&T’s 4G LTE network delivered the fastest pure LTE speeds in markets where AT&T provided 4G LTE**.

According to Strategy Analytics, tablet sales in the United States will rise from 49.8 million in 2012 to 103.7 million in 2017. As tablet sales continue to rise, AT&T has cemented itself as the leading tablet provider, offering the widest and best selection of tablets of any U.S. carrier.

“Demand for 4G LTE-connected tablets is growing, and we’re offering our customers the most choice and the best portfolio. The Galaxy Note 8.0 is an awesome tablet and flies on 4G LTE,” said Chris Penrose, Senior Vice President – Emerging Devices, AT&T. “We expect customers to be excited about the Galaxy Note 8.0’s versatility that makes its useful for work and entertainment.”

The Galaxy Note 8.0 is the ideal premium tablet for work, play, home, or on the go. Galaxy Note 8.0 also features several new business solutions, including SAFE™ (Samsung for Enterprise) technology, which ensures a secure work environment even away from the office. With SAFE, Samsung layers extra features on top of native Android to make your tablet more secure and easier for your employer’s IT department to manage. Using Polaris Office, customers can view, create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations – right on their tablet. They can also add handwritten notes and annotate on PowerPoint and Word documents.

With Multi Window, users can open two different applications side-by-side to perform two tasks at once, such as checking email while drafting notes. The S Pen™, exclusive on Samsung Note devices, comes integrated in the Note 8.0 and offers precision, control and an unprecedented note taking capability. The S Pen can replicate a mouse and simulate writing or sketching, eliminating the need for a notepad, sketchbook, sticky notes and rolodex contacts. Air View™ allows users to preview emails, calendar events, photos and videos just by hovering over the screen with the S Pen.

Galaxy Note 8.0 includes several entertainment options including WatchON™, a new search and recommendation service which makes finding TV shows and on-demand video content faster, easier and more personalized. WatchON simplifies the process of discovering new content to watch by searching across multiple content sources (such as live TV, YouTube, and streaming video-on-demand sources) to recommend movies and TV shows. For users more interested in reading a book, the new Reading Mode creates a comfortable reading experience in all lighting conditions by optimizing the gorgeous screen to provide perfect illumination and tone. And with the ability to annotate directly with the S pen, all on a size made easy to hold, reading has never been more enjoyable, even on the go.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 is powered by Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and a 1.6 GHz quad core processor with a 4,600 mAh battery. Customers will experience fast downloads with little lag time helping enhance their ability to move between home screens and apps. The Galaxy Note 8.0 weighs 12 ounces and has an eight inch display, with 189 pixels per inch, which provides users with a vibrant HD quality picture with plenty of room to work. Users can play videos in 1080p resolution, and the 5-megapixel rear facing camera with digital zoom can shoot 720p video, while the 1.3-megapixel front facing camera can handle video chats at 720p resolution. Galaxy Note 8.0 comes with 16GB internal memory and a microSD slot for up to 32GB expandable memory. Customers also receive 50GB of free storage with AT&T Locker (available via an update), so users can easily store their videos, pictures, and files and access form multiple devices.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

** Limited 4G LTE availability in select markets. LTE is a trademark of ETSI. Claim is based on a comparison of U.S. national carriers’ average 4G LTE download speeds for Android™ and Windows smartphones and iPhone 5. 4G speeds not available everywhere. In 4G LTE coverage areas, talk and surfing data at the same time uses AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network.