While the land down under isn’t getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 any time soon, Australian citizens can be glad that they’re getting the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note. Early tomorrow (or in U.S. terms, late tonight) Samsung announced plans to distribute the jumbo smartphone there in “early 2012.” Australia is only the second market confirmed to get the flagship device.

The Samsung Galaxy Note was announced at IFA in Berlin. It’s a 2.3 Gingerbread phone that shares a lot of characteristics with the best-selling Galaxy S II – except in a couple of key areas. Those areas are a massive 5.3-inch screen pushing 1280 x 800 pixels out of a Super AMOLED+ panel and a beefed-up 1.4GHz dual-core processor. The Galaxy Note also features a capacitive stylus and custom software to take advantage of the pen-style input. Check out Android Community’s hands-on footage with the Galaxy Note to see why we’re so excited.

Samsung and Apple are still in a bitter patent battle over the former’s tablet designs, culminating in Apple refusing to accept a settlement on Tuesday. This is only the latest in a long line of patent battles spanning the globe, but so far, Apple has shown no intention of blocking sales of the Galaxy Note specifically. UK consumers will get their hands on the Samsung Galaxy note in November, and US residents may not be far behind.

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