The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has been nothing more than a rumor since early spring. That rumor has finally been confirmed as the newest Android tablet is available for pre-order through Best Buy online. Samsung has had a bit of an up and down battle bringing the latest Galaxy Tab to store shelves. German customers recently found that they will not be able to buy any Samsung tablets for a while anyway thanks to a recent court ruling.

As a positive, US Cellular has recently joined the ranks of cellular providers who are able to offer the Galaxy Tab to customers. Of course the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is actually a bit of an improvement on the original, hence why the rumors of its arrival have been much anticipated. This new Galaxy Tab, which is currently selling for $469.99 is sporting the third different sized screen among the Galaxy Tabs. 

The first Galaxy Tab was termed the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and sported a 7.7 inch screen. The second Samsung tablet was the Galaxy 10.1, which sported a 10.1 inch screen. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is not surprisingly coming complete with an 8.9 inch screen.

While this isn’t the LTE version that Samsung did announce in August, there are plenty of goodies that will make Android tablet users drool. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 has the Honeycomb 3.1 OS and has 16GB of storage. While the previous Galaxy Tabs haven’t exactly been the most popular tablets on the market, they have done a brisk enough business. 

The 7.7 inch tablet especially was not well loved but the 10.1 inch screen saw some improvements in sales. Samsung is hoping that when this 8.9 inch screened tablet does become available it will be able to compete with the Apple iPad.

Of course, while we know the specs and the price of this particular tablet we don’t yet know exactly when it is coming. While Best Buy is indeed taking pre-orders there is no indication as to when those logging the orders will actually receive the product. On the site there is simply a message that says “coming soon.” We’ll just have to wait and see how soon that really is.