Samsung's Galaxy Note II, a 5.5-inch-screen phone/tablet (termed by some as a "phablet"), will be available in the U.S. by mid-November, the company said Wednesday.
Pricing was not announced, but Samsung said the Galaxy Note II will be available from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular. The original Galaxy Note goes for around $200 with a new two-year contract with a carrier.
The Galaxy Note II will also be the first Samsung phone to use the latest version of Android, 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean.
The original Galaxy Note has a 5.3-inch screen, but the Note II's screen will be 5.5 inches, narrower and longer than the first version. The HD Super AMOLED touchscreen has a 16:9 aspect ratio. A faster processor is being used — a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, compared to the current model's 1.4 GHz dual-core processor.
The Note — part phone, part tablet — has been a hit for Samsung, which has sold more than 10 million of the devices worldwide in its first year.
It uses a stylus, called the S Pen, and Samsung says for the Note II, the stylus has been "ergonomically redesigned to provide a more precise and natural writing and drawing experience. The new S Pen can sense 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, four times more than the original S Pen."
The Samsung Galaxy Note II will come in two colors: "Marble White" and "Titanium Gray."
To learn more, visit Samsung's website.
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