14 DAY TRIAL // Although Samsung’s new Android flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III is currently more popular than the Galaxy Note, the latter is still among the company’s best handsets available on the market.
Unveiled back in September at IFA 2011, Samsung Galaxy Note hit shelves one month later. The South Korean company launched two versions of the smartphone depending on the locations.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note is now available in the United States via AT&T with a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5 GHz.
However, the device is also available with a Samsung Exynos 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU, which is complemented by a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit.
Even though both variants of the Samsung Galaxy Note come with LTE support, these services are only available in areas with 4G-network coverage. Other than the SoC included inside, there are no differences between the two Galaxy Note variants.
Unlike the Galaxy S III, which is shipped with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box, the Galaxy Note is powered by Gingerbread.
Samsung has confirmed plans to deliver an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for the Galaxy Note, and has already kept its promise in some regions.
Aussie customers who own the Optus Galaxy Note are still stuck on Gingerbread, though the operator has confirmed that an Android 4.0 ICS update will be available for the smartphone.
The good news is that Australian carrier Optus has just approved the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for Samsung Galaxy Note, which means owners might start receiving it within the next few days.
For the time being, there are no additional details on delivery method, but the major upgrade might be pushed FOTA (firmware over the air) or via Samsung Kies desktop software. Stay tuned for more info on the subject.