T-Mobile to offer Galaxy Note on Aug. 8

Computerworld - T-Mobile USA announced Monday that the 5.3-in. Samsung Galaxy Note will be available on Aug. 8 for $249.99, after a rebate with a two-year service plan.

T-Mobile's version of the Galaxy Note 5.3-in. touchscreen device will come with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

The AT&T version of the device began shipping in February with Android 2.3. AT&T began offering an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich earlier this month.

The T-Mobile Note device also includes the ICS Premium Suite upgrade that includes extensions for the Note's S Pen digital pen capabilities, a T-Mobile spokesman confirmed via email on Monday.

The original Galaxy Note has sold more than 5 million copies. Some reviewers have said that Samsung apparently attempted to address problems with that versions digital stylus via the Premium Suite.

The popularity of the new device surprised some reviewers who said the 5.3-in. Galaxy Note isn't practical for one-handed usage like many 3-in. and 4-in smartphones.

By comparison, the 4.8-in. Galaxy S III smartphone is at the larger end of the smartphone range and the smallest tablets tend to have 7-in. screens.

Galaxy Note features a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm S3 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of built-in storage plus a MicroSD slot. The Super Amoled display is 1280 x 800 pixels.

An 8-megapixel camera on the back is complimented by a 2-megapixel camera on the front. A 2100 mAh battery is included,

Other specs are listed on T-Mobile's web site.

T-Mobile offers its HSPA+ 42 network, for the Galaxy Note, which it calls 4G. Some reviewers have seen up to 8 Mbps on downlink speeds for that network, although the theoretical top speed is 42 Mbps.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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