Samsung's Galaxy Note II Goes On Sale In UK

Samsung's Galaxy Note II has gone on sale, with the 5.5-inch phablet arriving in the UK just over a month since it was first unveiled. The quadcore handset is available through Three – though it's also due to hit other carriers – as well as unlocked, priced from £69 ($111) with a new agreement or around £528 ($852) SIM-free. Meanwhile, the Note II will arrive in the US later this month.

Three is offering the Note II on both contract and prepay plans. For the former, you can choose either Three's Ultimate Internet 500 tariff, with no limits on data fees, for £34 per month with £69 one-off for the phone itself, or Three's The One Play for £36 per month, with unlimited voice, messaging, and data, and the same one-off fee for the Note II.

Pay-as-you-go, meanwhile, costs £499.99 ($807) for the Note II, then a choice of top-ups for voice, messaging, and data. The carrier is offering both grey and white versions of the phone.

As for unlocked, Clove is asking £528, while Expansys wants £529.99 along with Amazon. The handset has a 1.6GHz processor, 8-megapixel main camera, UMTS HSPA+ connectivity, and 16GB of internal storage, with a microSD card slot for augmenting that. Its party trick, however, is the special digital pen which can be used to annotate documents and draw sketches.

US availability is expected to begin in late October or early November. More on the Galaxy Note II in our full hands-on.