It promises to be a busy 2013 for Samsung as the company reportedly lined up strings of gadget releases in the year's first half alone, apparently to build up more attention on the Galaxy brand before the rumoured Galaxy S4 crashes into the scene.

Pointing to a supposed Samsung mobile roadmap for the first six months of 2013, TechnoBuffalo reported that the South Korean mobile phone manufacturer is pushing out new devices to precede the expected issuance of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 on the second half of the year.

First on the list is the mini tablet Galaxy Note 8.0. The same report merely confirmed earlier claims by SamMobile that the new slate will carry the following specs: a 1280 x 800 TFT LCD display, Android 4.2 JellyBean, a quad-core 1.6GHz processor, a 5MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera and a 4600mAh battery.

The roadmap also showed that the Note 8.0 will be showcased in the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, just a few weeks away. As with its Note siblings, this tablet will come with S-Pen stylus.

Right before the MWC 2013, Samsung will release two handsets namely the Galaxy Grand and the Galaxy X Cover 2. These two phones will debut sometime between the early and middle part of February.

The dual-SIM Galaxy Grand is packed with a dual-core 1.2GHz processing power and a 5-inch WVGA display screen. It has two cameras - 8MP on rear and 2MP on front - with 8GB of internal memory and a 2100mAh battery.

To join this mid-range handset is the Galaxy X Cover 2 but with slightly lower specs. Protecting the insides of the phone - which consist of a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 4GB memory, a 5MP rear camera and a 1700mAh battery - is a dustproof and waterproof case.

Price range for the phones, both powered by JellyBean 4.1, is expected to be on the affordable zone.

Rounding up the first quarter offerings from Samsung are refreshed versions of earlier entry-level Samsung smartphones. Both the Galaxy Pocket Plus and the Galaxy Young bear slight bump ups from their predecessors, most notable of which is the inclusion of Android JellyBean 4.1 to the budget devices.

Previously, Samsung's mass market handsets are in Android Gingerbread and most of them languish on that version to date.

Samsung plans to offer the Galaxy Pocket Plus and Galaxy Young on February and April respectively.