After selling more than a million units in the rest of the world since it’s release in Q4 of 2011, and Samsung’s announcement that it would be available in the US market in 2012, there must be many folks out there who have been eagerly waiting to get their hands on this phone-tablet beauty, without having to shell out those extra bucks for an international version. The device has still not reached the States yet, but the folks over at Sammobile received an interesting email tipping them off with some information about the phone, and a picture of the device sporting an AT&T logo 🙂

As you can see in the pic, the device features the 4 capacitive button array, which the US market is used to, and the absence of the Home button as on the International version is conspicuous, making it look like an enlarged version of the AT&T Galaxy S2. Not surprising, when you consider that the international Galaxy Note, does indeed look a lot like an enlarged Galaxy S2. And if the tip is anywhere close to being true, the US version will also include an NFC chip, which is not featured in the European or international version of the Note. While NFC is yet to really catch up at a consumer level anywhere in the world, the inclusion would just serve to future-proof an already future-proof device further.

Surprisingly, there seems to be no mention of the processor specs, so we are assuming that it remains the same as the one in the international version.

Also, it is said to be shipping with Gingerbread 2.3.6 ─ like the International version, which seems a bit odd, as the official ICS or Android 4.0 from Samsung is expected to be out by March-April 2012.

The rumored specs are as follows:

  • 5.29″WXGA Super AMOLED (C-type touch), Full Touch Bar
  • Android OS: Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread
  • 21M + HSPA, LTE
  • 8MP AF with LED flash, 2MP Camera Front
  • HD Recording (1080) / MHL ver1.0
  • A-GPS, GLONASS / BT v3.0 + HS / USB v2.0 / WiFi (802.11 a / b / g / n) / OTG
  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Compass, Proximity, Light, Gyro sensor, Barometer
  • TouchWiz 4.0 for Android, Multistage, Augmented Reality, Integrated phonebook with SNS, IM, Email, Face Recognition, etc.
  • WiFi calling, Qik
  • NFC

Well, at this point, all of this could just be pure conjecture, till the device actually hits the market, and it is believed that it should be out before the end of Q2 2012. For those of you who still have a few months left on your contract before you upgrade, it might well be worth the wait after all.

If you hear anything more on this, do let us know through comments below.