The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has been the subject of on-and-off rumors for several months already, but the South Korean manufacturer only recently formally unveiled the 5.5-inch device. Plenty of details of the so-called hybrid smartphone/tablet have leaked out previously, but confirmation that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean would be on board is certainly great news.

Photo credit: Samsung

At its pre-IFA event in Berlin, Samsung described the Galaxy Note 2 as the “most powerful smartphone” yet, and the device’s specifications lend some credence to this claim.

A quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos 4 chipset and 2GB of RAM provide the processing punch, while the massive display is a Super AMOLED HD panel with 1280 x 720 pixels. Power comes courtesy of a 3100mAh battery, while it apparently shares the imaging suite of the Galaxy S3, with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front snapper.

Nature UX is overlaid over Jelly Bean, and much like its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 2 comes with the S Pen stylus, plus a suite of apps and user interface features that take advantage of it. These include Air View, which allows previews on stylus hover; and Popup Note, which adopts the Galaxy S3’s Popup Play multi-tasking feature and allows a user to instantly call up an S Note popup while doing various tasks.

The Galaxy Note 2 is scheduled to hit store shelves in October. Supposedly, Europe would be among the first markets to get the device, with these HSPA+ international variants due to hit sometime from October 1 to 12.

The 4G LTE variants for carriers in the United States are supposed to be available before the end of that month.