Samsung Galaxy Note hitting UK early?

Samsung Galaxy Note

Back in September, we told you that the Samsung Galaxy Note was arriving in late November for £600 SIM-free. Well, those details have changed. For the better, we might add.

According to Crave, the original 17 November shelf date has now changed to 1 November. That's if you buy your SIM-free phone via Clove, which is claiming to have stock as we enter November. Not only that, the price has dropped from that £600 price point, with the smartphone now retailing for £495 excluding VAT. All good news then.

That 17 November date is still a valid Samsung release date though, but for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone packing Google's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Hopefully, that's the date for contract sales too.

But back to the Samsung Galaxy Note – why should you want one? Well, if you love large handsets, you definitely should want this particular device. Pushing the smartphone label and almost qualifying as a tablet, this 5.3-inch device packs a Super AMOLED display at a high-res 1280x800 resolution, a 1.4GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, along with an eight-megapixel camera with LED flash and a two-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, the former also shooting 1080p HD video. All of that in an Android Gingerbread device just 9.6mm thin. There's also an S-Pen (aka stylus) bundled, should you need it.

If all of that appeals, get your order in now or wait for the contract deals to show. With an early November launch, there shouldn't be long to wait for those.