The Samsung Galaxy Note is among a rare breed of smartphones that need no introduction. It's polarizing, memorable and single-handedly responsible for the popularization of the term "phablet." It's also the indisputable king of that category, having recently defended its throne against LG's Optimus Vu. Aside from the Note's sprawling display, much of its appeal lies in the tight software integration with the S Pen stylus, which endows the phone with notepad-like functionality.

The first (and second) time we reviewed the Galaxy Note, it featured Android 2.3. Since then, it's received an update to Android 4.0, along with a new set of productivity apps dubbed the Premium Suite. Now as the phone arrives at T-Mobile (for $250 with a contract and after a $50 rebate), we're taking the opportunity to review not just the new variant, but in this case, the latest OS as well. You already know much of the Galaxy Note's story, but now the question remains: just how much of the text has been re-written? Let's find out.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note for T-Mobile review

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If you thought the Apple and Samsung legal tussles weren't getting interesting enough, another filing has revealed that the father of all smartphones Galaxy has at least two Windows Phone 8 devices in the pipeline. According to the filing that's been unearthed by The Verge, both are running on a dual-core 1.5Ghz Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset -- which is currently Samsung's chip of choice for LTE regions. The Odyssey looks set to be Samsung's high-end Windows Phone, with a 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display and NFC ready for Microsoft's own mobile payment plans. Meanwhile, the Marco will apparently forego the near-field delights and house a humbler 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED screen, for a presumably gentler price. According to the legal documents, both devices are gearing up to launch in Q4 of this year -- after we've seen Windows Phone 8 in its entirety.

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Having to fiddle with a separate Android tablet and smartphone and a laptop just won't cut it? You might be eager to get your mitts the ASUS PadFone if that's your sentiment, but folks in the US won't exactly find these at their local Best Buy. Still, despite having no official carrier support or definitive launch plans within the states, you'll now be able to snag the smartphone bundled with its tablet dock if you're willing to hit the gray market. As discovered by Phone Arena, our friends at Negri Electronics are now stocking the international edition of the über-hybrid; $860 gets you one to call your own, but tactile-typists should note that it doesn't include the keyboard dock. To refresh your memory, the fone itself is runs Ice Cream Sandwich atop a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, and features a 4.3-inch AMOLED display, 16GB of expandable storage, HSPA+ connectivity and a 1,520mAh battery. Additionally, the 10-inch PadFone Station (tablet dock) scores you more screen real estate (naturally) and a nine-fold increase in battery life. Feel free to refresh your knowledge of the device (and its accessories) with our previous hands-on posts, then check out the source link below if you decide to pick one up with your hard-earned dough.

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Samsung's Euro-centric Omnia M has finished its mandated saunter through the FCC. The Windows Phone for the old country will sport a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor -- while the test documents reveal that it'll only carry a GSM and 3G radio, leaving the lucky few with LTE out in the cold. Now that it's passed the regulatory hurdle of being allowed into the US, we can hope that the company will soon start talking about when we can get our hands on one.

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Not long after Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" looked like it would never see the light of day, the Windows Phone 7.5 device made its official debut at CTIA, dubbed as the Focus 2. As expected, the phone is officially on sale today at AT&T retailers across the US, giving folks another option aside from the HTC Titan II or flagship Lumia 900 for a fix of LTE and Mango on the network. To refresh your memory, you'll find a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and VGA camera up front, and a 5MP shooter on back that capture 720p video. Internally, there's a 1.4GHz single-core CPU (exceedingly par for the course for Windows Phone at this point) and a 1,750mAh battery to hopefully ensure you'll have enough juice to get through the day. Despite the speedy connectivity, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Focus 2 packs a paltry 8GB of non-expandable storage and only comes in Glossy Pure White -- but for fifty bucks under a new two-year agreement, we won't kvetch too much. Our full review is coming soon, so hit the source link for more details in the meantime.

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Nice processor, shame about the Pentile. It's something that several people have been saying about Samsung's new chest-beating flagship. So why didn't it plump for the warmer Super AMOLED Plus found on both its predecessor and the bigger-boned Galaxy Note? According to Samsung's spokesperson, it's because those blue sub-pixels that are absent on Super AMOLED displays degrade faster than their red and green allies. With the aim of keeping its phones healthily glowing for at least 18 months, it made the decision to go with the Pentile formation. Compared to the Galaxy Nexus, which matches the resolution of the Galaxy S III, Samsung has also shrunk the gaps between pixels on its newest phone in an effort to reduce complaints leveled at its Super AMOLED technology -- although we didn't notice it all that much under our microscope.

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We're sure Samsung isn't playing favorites... but after that rather extravagant product launch just the other week, it seems it's released another phone to market with barely a streamer nor slice of cake in sight. The phone in question is the SHV-E170K, and will be coming to South Korea's KT network. The handset was announced with minimal details, other than having a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD (960×540) display, LTE, 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel shooter up front. However, with a little bit of internet cunning (i.e. some discovered benchmark tests) SammyHub has determined that we're dealing with a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 on top of Android 4 (TouchWiz'd by the looks of things). It should be out later this month, again, alas, potentially in its sister's shadow.

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The Nokia Lumia 900 may be the current leader when it comes to a quality Windows Phone handset on a budget, but Samsung is under-cutting the competition with the newly announced Focus 2. Succeeding the Focus and Focus S, this new handset offers LTE and comes in any color you like (so long as it's white) for the low-low price of $49.99 on-contract. It has a 4-inch Super AMOLED (non-Plus) display up front and a five megapixel sensor in the back, capable of recording 720p video, paired with a VGA camera facing forward. No details on processor memory at this point, but for that price we wouldn't expect to be too overwhelmed. Intrigued? You can sate that curiosity when it hits AT&T stores on May 20th.

Update: AT&T's site now specifies that the Focus 2 will use a 1.4GHz CPU.

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A couple weeks ago we got to have our Ice Cream Sandwich and eat it too, thanks to a gorgeous couple phones from HTC -- the One X and the One S. Both run Sense 4 -- a thinner, lighter version of the company's polarizing UI -- and together with the entry-level One V, represent HTC's attempt to make a comeback after a lackluster year of me-too products. The first to make its way to the US is the One S which lands on T-Mobile April 25 for $199 on contract (with a $50 rebate). We just spent a weekend with Magenta's new flagship handset. So how does it compare to the global One S? Find out after the break.

Gallery: HTC One S for T-Mobile review

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Source: T-Mobile

HTC One X review

HTC One S review

HTC Sense 4 review

Gallery: HTC One X vs. One S... fight!

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Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S Advance hands-on

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To explore NVIDIA's booth here at Mobile World Congress is to play a game of duck-duck-goose. For the most part, you'll see the Transformer Prime (the first quad-core tablet, don'tcha know) outputting video and 3D games. But look closely and you'll find something a little less expected. Hidden among all those spun metal Primes is an unannounced Toshiba-made tablet, one with an odd, in-between screen size we haven't seen it use in its Thrive line. Specifically, it's that 7.7-inch prototype we saw at CES, only the fact that it's here at NVIDIA's booth makes us think it would be too late for Toshiba to change its mind and pull the plug on this.

Certainly, it's far enough along that it now has confirmed specs. According to an NVIDIA rep, this has a 7.7-inch, 1280 x 800, Super AMOLED (!) panel, and runs NVIDIA's 1.5GHz Tegra 3 chip. And while NVIDIA isn't exactly broadcasting the name, a quick glance at the settings confirmed its current alias is the AT270, which would certainly make for a logical followup to the AT200. (A quick glance at the settings also confirms it's running ICS -- a vanilla version, at that -- but any self-respecting tech writer would know that instantly.)

It would also seem that Toshiba is feeling pretty confident about the design we saw at CES, because barely anything has changed. For starters, it's thin -- thin on the level of the 10-inch AT200. Which is to say, it's skinny in the wide world of tables, but especially so next to one of those chubby Thrives. The build quality also seems to have improved. Gone is the ridged plastic backing that makes the Thrives so recognizable, and in its place there's... more plastic. Still, it manages to not feel chintzy or poorly made -- think of the kind of finely textured plastic you'll find on the back of any Samsung Galaxy handset. Also on board: dual cameras of unknown resolutions, as well as an exposed microSD slot, volume rocker, 3.5mm headphone jack and USB socket. So there you have it. We've got spy shots below, so you can refuse to be surprised when this thing finally makes it to market.

Zach Lutz contributed to this report.

Gallery: Toshiba AT270 prototype hands-on at Mobile World Congress 2012

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Gallery: ASUS Padfone hands-on

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Just like it said it would, ASUS has formally unveiled its versatile, form-changing PadFone at Mobile World Congress. There are two stories here, and they're both quite compelling, frankly. On the one hand, you've got yet another high-end device, with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon's new dual-core S4 chip, an Adreno 225 GPU, Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and f/2.2 autofocusing lens. (The front camera records at VGA resolution.) Other specs include 16 to 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, GPS, A-GPS, a gyroscope, 1,520mAh battery and a compass. Connectivity options include WCDMA (900, 2100 MHz), EDGE / GPRS / GSM (850, 1800 and 1900 MHz) and HSPA+, with theoretical download speeds topping out at 42Mbps. Barring LTE, we wouldn't expect much less from a flagship launched at the world's premier wireless show.

But those are just specs. If you focus solely on its chip and 9.2mm-thick frame you'd be missing its most distinguishing attribute: it's ability to parade around in tablet's clothing (albeit, with the help of some optional, still-unpriced accessories.) Taking a cue from Motorola's Lapdock-friendly handsets, the PadFone can slide into an optional station that effectively allows you to use it as if it were a 10.1-inch tablet. Like the optional docks sold alongside ASUS' Transformer tablets, the station not only improves the ergonomics, but also extends the battery life -- in this case, by nine-fold. Speaking of keyboard docks, ASUS will be selling one for this product, too, so that you can tuck that 10-inch phone-tablet into something with a full physical keyboard. Finally, there's that guy you see up there, which looks like a stylus (and is!), but also doubles as a headset for receiving calls. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.

And when can you make it yours? ASUS confirmed that the PadFone will ship in April. Unfortunately, the company stopped short of revealing any pricing, so you'll have to stay tuned for some country-specific details. For now, though, we're planning on getting hands-on with the device as soon as we can, giving you a much closer look than we were able to when we spied a prototype back at CES.

Update: And our hands-on is up now. Enjoy!

Update 2: ASUS just confirmed that the LTE flavor of the PadFone will be available in early Q3 -- see the slide after the break.

Gallery: ASUS Padfone and Padfone Station

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Gallery: Huawei Ascend P1 S

Gallery: Huawei Ascend P1

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Gallery: Fujitsu Arrows μ F-07D hands-on

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Gallery: Samsung Captivate Glide review

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Gallery: Verizon Galaxy Nexus review

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Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Verizon LTE unboxing

Gallery: Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ vs. LTE

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