Samsung, Sony, HP announce new Android tablets

Samsung, Sony and Hewlett-Packard took to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, over the weekend to announce new tablets that could rival Apple’s iPad.

The most notable of the tablets is Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0, which will be the South Korean tech company’s direct competitor to Apple’s iPad mini and the Google Nexus 7. As noted by its name, the Galaxy Note 8.0 has an eight-inch screen with a 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution. Like other Galaxy Note products, the new Samsung tablet will also come with the S Pen stylus.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core processor and comes in 16-GB and 32-GB models.

Samsung also said the Galaxy Note 8.0 will come with an infrared blaster technology that allows it to be used as an universal remote control for TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices. No pricing or availability dates were given.

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Sony, meanwhile, announced that the ultra-thin Xperia Tablet Z that was unveiled last month will come to the U.S. this spring and be available starting at $499 for the 16-GB model and $599 for the 32-GB version.

The 10.1-inch screen tablet, which has a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution, is 0.27-inches thick, making it thinner than Apple’s ultra-thin iPad mini. The Xperia Tablet Z runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and uses a 1.5GHz quad-core processor. It too has infrared remote and Sony says the Xperia Tablet Z has the highest levels of water resistance found on any tablet. It can be submerged up to three feet underwater for up to half an hour.

As for HP, the Palo Alto technology giant announced its first Android tablet, the HP Slate 7. The small-sized tablet has a 7-inch screen with a 1,024-by-600-pixel resolution and comes with 8 GB of storage that can be expanded with microSD memory cards.

The HP Slate 7 also runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and uses a 1.6GHz dual-core processor. The tablet will cost $169 and be available in the U.S. in April.

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