Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 smartphone maker, said on Monday that it unveiled its new, upgraded tablet PC at the 2013 Mobile World Congress (MWC) to beat Apple's iPad mini.

The 8-inch Galaxy Note 8.0 was officially launched at the 2013 MWC held in Barcelona, according to an e-mailed statement. The model came with 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, running on 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android operating system (OS).

The 8-inch display with a resolution of 1280 by 800 features a pixel density of 320 ppi, higher than 149 ppi of its predecessor Galaxy Note 10.1. It has a killer application S-Pen stylus and a closer resemblance to the company's Galaxy smartphone series.

"As the launch of the next iPad mini is not expected until the second quarter, the Galaxy Note 8.0 should increase its market share in the 7 to 8-inch tablet PC category," Cho Jinho, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul said in a report.

The analyst forecast that Samsung's tablet PC shipments would surge 64.2 percent in 2013 to 30 million units, predicting the company's global market share in the tablet PC market to rise to 20.5 percent.