Alongside their upcoming line up of Windows devices, Samsung saw fit to reveal the successor to their Galaxy Note at their IFA press conference. The Samsung Galaxy Note II shares much of the same form factor as its predecessor with significant silicon and software updates. The screen remains a massive 5.5" 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED ordeal, and the S Pen has gained a few tricks in the year that passed. The processor is now the same Exynos 4 Quad (Exynos 4412) that premiered in the international Galaxy S III. When the SGS3 landed on these shores it swapped Exynos for the trappings of Qualcomm's MSM8960, and its LTE baseband. Since then Korean variants of the SGS3 have cropped up that include both the Exynos 4412 and LTE. If the Note 2 mirrors the Korean SGS3 LTE variant then it's likely to have the same CMC221 baseband, also seen in the Galaxy Nexus. 

On the software side, the stylus-centric TouchWiz variant on hand is actually running on Jelly Bean and will come with a few tricks not even seen on the recent Galaxy Note 10.1. Popup Note takes the hovering widget concept, which we've seen in other TouchWiz UIs, stretched to include S Note; so notes can be taken with other apps visible and on screen. Air View introduces a new hover behavior, that previews videos and attachments in e-mails or links without the user having to open the appropriate app. There's also a few new functions users can perform within S Note, including Idea Visualizer, which inserts images based on what handwritten keywords. 

Samsung's approach to evolving the Note has a lot of potential, and we'll be interested to see how it shapes up. The Note II will launch in Asia, Europe and the Mid East in October; with pricing and US launch to be determined. 

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  • n13L5 - Friday, August 31, 2012 - link

    I bought my Galaxy SII at release, so when the first Note came out, I wasn't going to buy another phone only a couple of months later, even though I liked the Note.

    This one, having a more efficient 28 nm processor is enough reason for me before anything else, cause coupled with the 3100 mAh battery, this might just last 2 days of medium use, rather than the one day I'm getting from the SII.

    I do wish it had dual SIM support..

    And I really wonder why Samsung or anybody only puts dual SIM slots into really crappy phones...

    Do manufacturers think their top-end customers are any less interested in dual SIM slots than the people who buy cheap phones??
  • jabber - Friday, August 31, 2012 - link

    Probably because if anyone put a dual SIM slot in a high-end phone chances are the owners would keep hold of them for longer.

    Remember, in all honesty these are only designed to last a year to 18 months.
  • boozzer - Friday, August 31, 2012 - link

    I should patent breathing. every human being should pay royalties to me!

    I am being serious here, just following apple's example.
  • ven - Sunday, September 2, 2012 - link

    How long samsung is going to strech the display size, truly i am bored with current smartphones, all we are getting is increase pixel pack, cpu power, ram size, some improvements in the UI. where is the flexible displays samsung showed, is it still a fantasy?
  • Cheness - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link

    I would this not within this decade, because there is this thing called profit in the way.
    Companies not spend billions on tech just to phase them out in like 3 years.
    We're still getting there with regular OLED. bet they will milk it out as long as it remains profitable.

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