As we expected, the 5.3-inch Thompson X-View-2 smartphone’s time in the limelight will be short lived, as Samsung has confirmed it will be launching a successor to the Galaxy Note on August 29th.
By means of an official invite, the date of the big reveal has been let loose by Reuters. Just before the annual IFA tech event kicks off in Berlin, Germany, Samsung will show us the Galaxy Note II that we’ve heard so much about recently.
The invite features the header “when magical moments come alive” and there’s a magic wand coming out of the trademark Samsung Mobile Unpacked box. We reckon that the magic wand resembles the S Pen stylus that will most likely be used with the new smartphone-come-tablet.
Unlike Samsung’s hugely popular Galaxy S series, the Galaxy Note hasn’t been faked or leaked anywhere near as much as the Galaxy SIII. However, we’ve been hearing several reports that the screen size will be upped from 5.3-inches to 5.5-inches, although the overall size of the device won’t increase by much, if at all.
Rumours have also pointed towards an upgraded 12-megapixel rear camera sensor, although we don’t think Samsung will budge from the current 8-megapixel option. If you’ll cast your mind back to the Galaxy SIII rumours, the same upgrade was supposedly on the cards, but never made it to fruition.
Finally, hopes are pinned on the second-gen ‘phablet’ launching with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board. While it would be fantastic, with the software only launching around a month ago, we very much doubt Samsung has had the time to test the new OS on its Note 2 in time. Our money is on Ice Cream Sandwich being the software of choice for launch, with a likely nod to a Jelly Bean update in the near future.
Samsung will be live streaming the event on its Facebook page, and we’ll have all the news for you on August 29th, so stay tuned!
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