It’s not like we haven’t seen leaked images of the Galaxy Note 8.0 so far, but this one seems to come straight from Samsung, which they apparently “accidentally” leaked a photo of Note 8.0 in their press images.
Nothing much seems to have changed, though. The Galaxy Note 8.0 still looks like a blown-up white Galaxy S3. Ever since they launched the Galaxy S3, they’ve released a bunch of other devices that looked almost identical to the S3, trying to capitalize on the brand and image of the Galaxy S3.
I think that has been generally a smart move, as people have quickly gotten used to the Galaxy S3 design, and then if for some reason they wanted a more affordable version of it or a bigger version (Galaxy Note 2), they could’ve gotten other devices that look the same. Many people buy devices for brand recognition, so for that kind of users, this is very important.
However, I think with the Note 8.0, Samsung went a little too far. Not only is the S3 design starting to feel a little old just about now, and after so many devices using this design style (a risk you run into when you use this kind of strategy), but I also don’t think that type of design is very suited for 7″+ devices. The design with the home button looks a lot more suited for phones than tablets. Therefore, whoever will see this will immediately think Note 8.0 is just a bigger phone. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing.
The biggest issue is that everything about this device feels like it should’ve been made for last summer or something. Nothing about it feels like a spring 2013 device – not the looks of it, and not the specs either. This is not the first time Samsung has done this either, as last year they’ve launched some 10″ tablets that were almost identical in specs and price with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from a year before. It would make some sense if these devices came half as cheap or so, but they usually have pretty high prices, too. Plus, why not release the older model for a lower price, like Apple does with its devices, instead of releasing a “new” one that is basically the same?
Galaxy S4 should be launched soon, and I think we’ll see a whole range of new Samsung devices after it that look the same. Hopefully they don’t repeat the story and do that well into 2014, again, though.
[Via TheVerge]