Paired with S Note, Samsung's Note taking app, WhatsApp provides the perfect messaging platform to send doodles, hand written notes or works of art created on the tab itself.
7. Voice control
Samsung and Google both have pre-loaded voice control services on the Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0 – Google Now and S Voice. While there's a lot of overlap across both voice apps, they have some marked differences.
To access Google Now, you'll need to press and hold the menu button. The app should be your go-to for voice searches. With a handsome interface, search results are presented in a card style system, and the app even works with British accents.
Samsung's voice app, S Voice can be activated with a double tap of the home button. Ask it the weather, it will give you an answer; ask it to take down a memo, it'll do it; ask it to make a call or send a message, you guessed it – S Voice is up to the challenge.
8. Tethering
Just because you don't have a smartphone, it doesn't mean you can't tether.
To clarify, tethering is when a phone or 3G tablet turns into mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. Not all mobile contracts allow tethering, so you'll want to check with your network operator before you start.
To activate it, jump into your settings, choose 'Network' followed by 'Tethering and portable hotspot'.
You can flick tethering on in the following menu, or tweak your tethering settings by changing your network name and your password.
9. Usage meter
With tethering in mind, your contract will more than likely pack a data limit of between 500MB to 1GB.
Tablets tend to chew through data quicker than mobiles thanks to the form factors lending themselves to richer content. Tethering to a laptop is also a sure fire way to rack up those MB.
In order to stay on top of your data usage, hop into the settings. Here, you'll be able to set a data limit so you never have to worry about any nasty data surprises in your monthly bill.
10. Skype
Beyonce wrote a song about it so it must be cool, right?
Video phone apps. There's no shortage of them on the Google Play Store but Skype is still the people's choice.
Available across platforms, Skype both works as a chat app with plain text and also takes advantage of the Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0's front facing camera for video calls.
You can video phone a computer, a mobile phone or another tablet and do so over Wi-Fi or 3G. The app even supports file transfers, striking the perfect balance between work and play.
So whether you're looking for a quick natter, to see a loved one face to face or send that all important document, Skype for Android is the last app on our list to help transform your Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0 into your primary smartphone.
