When I first met the Galaxy Tab 8.9 in Florida earlier this year I felt like it may be the perfect tablet form factor: small enough to be really portable, while large enough to really be a tablet. Our own Jason Inofuentes is live at Samsung's press event where the company just announced availability of the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab. The new tablet will be available nation-wide starting October 2nd in 16GB and 32GB configurations for $469 and $569, respectively. 

The specs of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 are virtually identical to its bigger brother. You still get a 1280 x 800 PLS display, just in a smaller form factor. NVIDIA powers the tablet, Samsung lists the SoC as a dual-core T250S, presumably running at the same clocks as the Tegra 2 in the 10.1. 

The weight also drops a bit to 447g. The 8.9 features two cameras (2MP front facing and 3MP rear facing), is WiFi-only and ships with Android 3.1 with Samsung's TouchWiz UX. Battery capacity is listed at 6100mAh. Jason should be getting our review sample in the next hour, expect a quick preview in the next day followed by our usual in-depth treatment next week!