Samsung Galaxy Note II made official – runs Jelly Bean and has a 5.5 inch display

Samsung have announced the launch of Galaxy Note II at IFA. The new smartphone/tablet is the next generation of the original Note launched last year. The new model has a larger 5.5 inch screen and runs the latest Android operating system which is Jelly Bean. Other specs inside include a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor.

The display is a Super AMOLED type that has a few more pixels when compared to the original note. That is, 1280 x 800 instead of 720.

The Verge compares it to the Galaxy S III in regards to the software as it looks very similar although it has been updated to work with the new designed S-Pen. A “Magic Wand” sub screen is added so that when you eject the pen from the back of the device you get a menu pop-up allowing you to choose what you want to do. The device has NFC built in and comes in three storage options which as 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. 2GB of RAM will be included on the Note II at launch.

One excellent addition related to the S-Pen is the ability to use what is called Air View. That allows you to hover the pen above the screen up to 10mm away and see where the pen is hovering. The screen can then provide feedback like you would see when you hover a mouse over a button or image on a desktop or laptop computer.

As for a launch, it could be 3 or so months away as Samsung has commented that it wont be ready until the 4th quarter of 2012.

If you like a large screened phone approaching tablet dimensions then I recommend you hang on and wait for the reviews to come in about it. The device looks excellent and my first impressions are that it would do extremely well, perhaps better than the original Note when it launches.

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