Here’s a partnership you probably weren’t expecting: Samsung has teamed up with Barnes & Noble to launch the new Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. The 7-inch device is almost identical to the original Galaxy Tab 4 — inside and out — but it comes pre-loaded with Nook apps and a custom user interface.

Samsung’s existing Galaxy Tabs — just like any other Android-powered tablet — have access to the Barnes & Noble Nook app in Google Play, so it’s unclear why the South Korean company felt the need to launch a special Nook-branded device. But this is Samsung, and it does some strange things sometimes.

If you use your tablet mostly for reading and you want to avoid Samsung’s regular TouchWiz user interface, it might be ideal.

“The co-branded devices will combine popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 hardware with customized NOOK software to give customers powerful, full-featured tablets that are designed for reading, with easy access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive digital collection of more than three million books, leading magazines and newspapers” Samsung says.

The Galaxy Tab 4 sports a 7-inch display with a 1280×800 resolution, and it’s powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor with 1.5GB of RAM. It’s available with 8GB or 16GB of internal storage — which you can expand via the microSD card slot — and it has a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera.

The device doesn’t appear to come bundled with any books, or discounts for the Nook store. Ironically, Samsung does offer its customers free Kindle books instead, thanks to a partnership with Barnes & Noble rival Amazon.

The Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will begin shipping in early August. Samsung hasn’t confirmed pricing yet, but the original slate currently costs $199.

• SourceBusinessWire