By Claire Reilly

2011 saw the growth of Samsung’s Galaxy sub-brand, with the company releasing the Galaxy S II smartphone early in the year, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 just before Christmas. Following this meteoric rise of the Galaxy brand, it seemed inevitable that Samsung would announce more products in its telecommunications stable at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

But Samsung went one better than announcing a smartphone and a tablet by launching two products in one.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is being billed by the company as the best of both worlds – a smartphone that offers all the perks of calling and messaging, with a large screen (though not quite as large as a tablet) designed to offer greater functionality.

Speaking to a packed auditorium at CES yesterday, senior vice president of Samsung Telecommunications America, Kevin Packingham, said the company had undertaken “extensive research” to find the perfect screen size for its new device.

The resulting 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED screen found on the Galaxy Note is the “largest high-definition smartphone screen in the world”. Weighing 178 grams and measuring 14.7 x 8.3 x 0.9 centimetres, the device is 2 centimetres wider and longer than the Galaxy S II, and the same length as the more widely-known $20 Note.

It features a 1.4 Ghz dual-core processor, Full HD 1080p video recording and playback, 16GB of internal memory (expandable to 32GB), plus an 8-megapixel rear camera with flash and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. Operating on the Android 3.2 Gingerbread OS, there is no news on whether it will be updated to run Ice Cream Sandwich.

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One of the more interesting features that takes the Note out of the realm of a regular smartphone is the S Pen stylus that comes with the device.

Unveiled at CES with slightly over-the-top orchestral music, Packingham said the S Pen is “not just stylish, it’s a precise instrument designed with 256 levels of pressure sensitivity,” making the Note “the first device that captures the tactile artistry of the pen and paper”.

“The Pen is mightier than the screen,” he quipped.

Samsung’s marketing materials promoting the Galaxy Note say the device captures the “Notepad’s free idea capturing, [the] smartphone’s 24/7 portability, [the] tablet’s large display” and the other core benefits of mobile products such as cameras and personal gaming devices.

It remains to be seen whether the Galaxy Note will be popular with consumers. While this “new type of smartphone” includes a little of everything, it may run the risk of excelling at nothing.

The Samsung Galaxy Note with its S Pen stylus.