Samsung's Galaxy Note II will go on sale by mid-November at AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and US cellular, Samsung said Wednesday for the first time.
The U.S. version of the device can run on fast LTE or HSPA+42 networks offered by the major carriers. Pricing will be announced by the carriers at a later date, Samsung said.
Reviewers who had time with a European edition of the device last month noted its 5.5-in. (1280 x 720 pixel resolution) display, an increase over the original 5.3-in version.
The original Note was called a success for Samsung, which introduced a digital stylus called the S Pen for the plus-sized smartphone. The stylus has been updated in the Note II.
"The original Galaxy Note created a new category of smartphones by combining the best of a smartphone with the best of a tablet," Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America, said in a statement. Samsung sold more than 10 million of the original devices in less than a year, demonstrating that the Note category is "taking hold," he said.
The Note II is the first device in the U.S. to feature Samsung's Exynos 1.6GHz quad-core processor, designed for LTE networks. The device features 2GB of RAM with 16GB of internal storage and room for 64GB more with a microSD card.
The battery in the new device is 3100 mAh, 24% larger than the original Note. The Note II is also slight lighter and narrower than the original.
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 email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
See more by Matt Hamblen on Computerworld.com.