Samsung (005930) on Wednesday finally took the wraps off the sequel to its popular Galaxy Note “phablet.” The smartphone-tablet hybrid didn’t go over very well with reviewers, but Samsung announced earlier this month that Galaxy Note sales had surpassed the company’s goal of 10 million units. Following up on Samsung’s trail-blazing phablet is the Galaxy Note II, which features a quad-core Samsung Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz, a gigantic 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with 720p resolution, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a massive 3,100 mAh battery, and Samsung’s S Pen stylus. In line with earlier reports, the phone will also include an 8-megapixel rear camera, 4G LTE connectivity in appropriate markets, and the base model will ship with 16GB of internal storage. Samsung said that the phone will become available in the U.S. later this year, though no pricing was revealed.

Zach Epstein has worked in and around ICT for more than 15 years, first in marketing and business development with two private telcos, then as a writer and editor covering business news, consumer electronics and telecommunications. Zach’s work has been quoted by countless top news publications in the US and around the world. He was also recently named one of the world's top-10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes, as well as one of Inc. Magazine's top-30 Internet of Things experts.