Samsung announces Galaxy Note II with Jelly Bean and many S Pen improvements

The Galaxy Note II is official. Though it leaked earlier this morning, there are some things that were not touched upon, especially in terms of software.

The Note II has a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 16:9 ratio — 1280×720 pixels as opposed to 1280×800 from the original — and a 1.6Ghz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera and 3100mAh battery. Unfortunately the screen has not been upgraded from the original Galaxy Note; this is still PenTile-based, and therefore not as clear or sharp as a screen with a full RGB palette.  It seems that Samsung has made improvements to the screen technology, eliminating PenTile but not quite upgrading to a full RGB palette. We’ll get more into this as we get closer to launch.

It will be available in two colours (at launch): Mountain White and Titanium Gray. There will be three size tiers as well: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, but all three will have expandable storage via microSD. Of course, NFC will be included in the massive battery, like in the Galaxy S III.

But the new software is the big feature here. The device may look like the Galaxy S III, but the S Pen fits into the body of the phone and there are a few new features worth noting:

Air View – Hovering the S Pen over emails, S Planner, an image or video allows the user to quickly preview content without actually having to open it
Popup Note – Pulling the S Pen out during a call automatically opens a new note for quickly jotting down notes
Quick Command – Using the S Pen, you can quickly and easily open frequented applications
Easy Clip – Pressing the button on the S Pen users can quickly outline and crop any content to edit and paste elsewhere
Idea Vizualizer – In S Note, users can insert illustrated images using handwritten keywords

It is coming in October this year in Europe and Asia, and North America later in the year. We’re verifying specifics from Samsung now and will update the post when available.