Best Buy began taking pre-orders on the device Thursday. The tablet sports an 8.9-inch screen, runs the Android 3.1 Honeycomb OS, has 16 GB of onboard memory and costs $469.99. The device is not the LTE version that was announced in August. Best Buy offers no release date, however, just saying it's "coming soon."
The device is Samsung's third crack at the tablet market. The company introduced the Galaxy Tab 7.7 with a 7.7-inch screen in September 2010. After Galaxy Tab 7.7's lukewarm reception, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with a 10.1-inch screen to U.S. stores in June.
Though Steve Jobs has famously dismissed 7-inch tablets as "tweeners," because they're bigger than a smartphone and smaller than a full-functioning tablet, the jury is out on how a somewhat smaller tablet might perform in the market.