Samsung has commenced the global rollout of its fresh attempt to beat Apple in the increasingly competitive tablet game. The Asian tech giant started selling the Galaxy Note 8.0 to UK buyers Friday last week.

The Note 8.0 retails for roughly $503, in which consumers visiting the Samsung Experience Store at the Westfield Stratford City in London will get a Wi-Fi flavour of the new tablet.

The cellular version, which Samsung said will be out shortly, also functions as a giant smartphone.

As previously announced, the slate comes with a quad-core 1.6GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory (but Brit buyers can upsize to 32GB), a camera mix of 5MP on rear and 1.3MP on front plus the enhanced S-Pen stylus, the latter "gives you the ease of using a traditional pen and paper with speed, efficiency and accuracy," Samsung said in a press statement.

Packed with the evolved stylus are new S-Pen apps called Paper Artist and Paper Note, which allows users top wield their creativity "wherever you are, whether on the commute to work, on holiday or sat on your living room sofa," Samsung added.

As the new iPad rival, Samsung highlighted the new Note 8.0's e-reading functions via the Reading Mode that "makes it easier to read e-books, magazines and newspapers as you can optimise the settings to create the most comfortable reading experience, plus you can annotate, highlight, cut and paste text."

And exclusive only for UK buyers, Samsung is giving out freebies that amount to savings of up to $89.

Note 8.0 buyers grabbing the tablet on or before April 15 are entitled to take home the following:

- A voucher to spend in the Samsung Learning Hub

- A 2-month free trial subscription to The Times newspaper

- AVG Anti-Virus Pro

- A one month free subscription of the Samsung Music Hub

- Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

- Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2

- A 2-year 50GB DropBox access

UK is the first major market to get the Note 8.0, which Samsung had introduced in February. It is expected that other destinations will follow shortly and experts have listed Australia and the United States as next target markets for Samsung's new answer to the still unruffled iPad phenomenon.

Specs-wise, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is geared to upend the iPad Mini and reviewers noted that the Samsung slate indeed is capable of giving the Apple slab a good fight, especially if the former will carry an irresistible price tag.

But the quoted price of over $500 appears contradictory to Samsung's earlier assurance that the Note 8.0 will sell in affordable price marks. Note too that the iPad Mini now sells for as low as $US299 from its previous selling point of $US329.