Samsung is expected to officially announce the Galaxy Note 8.0 at Mobile World Congress in February and new pictures of the device have already leaked online. The latest member of the Galaxy Note family of tablets from Samsung is expected to take a direct shot at Apple's iPad mini and judging from the specs and design, it will be up to the challenge.

In a move to differentiate its tablets and smartphones from the competition Samsung equips its Galaxy Note tablets and smartphones with a stylus called the S Pen. The S Pen is used as an input device to perform various tasks like sketching, note-taking, writing calendar entries, and more, in an intuitive way and very similar to the old paper planner method that most people are familiar with.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 image was leaked on website dday.it and it gives us an up-close look at what Samsung has in store in terms of design of the Galaxy Note 8.0. The Galaxy Note 8.0 appears to be using Samsung's "designed for humans, inspired by nature" marketing scheme for the Galaxy Note 8.0 as it heavily borrows design elements from both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 - it actually looks like an oversized model of both the devices. Samsung describes the inspiration of its design as minimal and organic which is reflected in its smooth and non-linear lines found on the devices. The leaked pictures also show that Samsung is using its traditional button setup instead of the more standard on screen buttons found on other Android tablets and smartphones. The Galaxy Note 8.0 also appears to use the more popular portrait orientation compared to the landscape design of most of Samsung's tablets. You can also clearly see the S Pen holder in the bottom right of the device.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is expected to feature an 8-inch 1280x800 TFT Super Clear LCD display, a 1.6GHz Exynos 4 Quad CPU, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. 16GB and 32GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and HSPA+ in the 3G model, and a 4,600 mAh battery. The device is expected to retail between $249 - $299.

We should know more specific details and pricing when Samsung unveils the Galaxy Note 8.0 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which kicks off on Feb. 25 and runs through Feb. 28.