Samsung unveils 8-inch tablet with phone capability

Samsung on Sunday unveiled an eight-inch tablet with phonecall capability to rival Apple’s recently launched iPad mini and to cement its market dominance by offering devices in a variety of sizes. The Galaxy Note 8.0 features an eight-inch screen and, where it may steal a march on its rival which measures 7.9-inches, the ability to make phone calls. The new device, now being marketed by Samsung as a “tablet”, is powered by Google’s Android software and will be showcased at the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona beginning on February 25, the company said in a statement. Like previous incarnations of the Galaxy Note, the device comes with a stylus pen allowing the user to write or draw on the screen, which can be split in two to run various programs at the same time.