One of the biggest smartphone releases of the year (no pun intended) now has a solid release date for US residents. Sprint will be launching the Samsung Galaxy Note II on October 25 for $299.99 with a new line of service or an eligible upgrade and a two-year service agreement.
The mammoth handset will be available in Marble White or Titanium Gray, according to the nation's third largest wireless carrier. The Note II will be the first quad-core smartphone that Sprint has offered and barring any further announcements from rival carriers, they will be the first of the four major providers to offer the phone in the US.
Sprint announced late last month that they would be holding a press event on October 24 to showcase the fact that "the next big thing is here." Sprint will likely publically show off the Note II before making it available for purchase the following day.
As you might already know, US versions of the Galaxy Note II will be virtually identical to international models that are already on sale. This means Americans will enjoy the same 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor that those abroad have access to. It's not uncommon for US versions of handsets to ship with slower dual-core chips but fortunately that isn't the case this time around.
The company didn't reveal any pre-order opportunities in today's press release and according to a post in Sprint's forum, they aren't planning to do pre-orders for the device. If you want to guarantee a phone on launch day, it'd probably be best to check around with third party retailers like Best Buy or RadioShack for reservations.