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GALAXY-Note-8.0
Image: Samsung
BARCELONA -- There is nothing in tech quite like Mobile World Congress. Yeah, it's massively huge like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But unlike CES, which is a bastion of all things electronic, the Congress is focused specifically on the mobile side. Phones and tablets. That's it. There isn't anywhere else on the planet where more phones and tablets make their debut than MWC.
But just because it's big and just because everyone is there doesn't mean it's all worth paying attention to. So, in an attempt to filter the signal from the noise, we're here to tell you what's Wired. One emerging trend are tablets you can make calls from. It might seem strange, but two major players, Samsung and Asus, are betting on this taking off.
Samsung's been blurring the line between phones and tablets for a couple years with its Galaxy Note devices. But while the Note phones have always sported massive displays and a stylus, nothing wearing the Note name has been so big (and still allowed you to place a call) as the Galaxy Note 8.0. It's an Android Jelly Bean tablet with an 8-inch, 1280 x 800 display, that (if the owner pays for mobile service) can be assigned a phone number and used to place a traditional phone call.
It's powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and Google's Android Jelly Bean operating system skinned in Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. The Note 8.0 goes on sale worldwide sometime in the second quarter, but Samsung hasn't said what it'll cost or which carriers will sell it. Still, it is clear that the company is on a mission to make an Android device in just about any screen size you could want. Samsung currently sells the Galaxy S III Mini (with a 4-inch screen), the Galaxy S III (with a 4.8-inch screen), the Galaxy Note II (with a 5.5-inch screen) and Galaxy tablets ranging in size from 7 to 10 inches. -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
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