Samsung Galaxy Note Released Today with Hefty £629 Price-Tag

Samsung's opening swing at Apple's already record-breaking iPhone 4S, the Galaxy Note, launched in the UK today, boasting a hefty £629 sim-free price-tag.

The titan-sized smartphone will be available today via the Carphone Warehouse. Vodafone will offer the Galaxy Note free on a £41.24 per month, 24-month contract. T-Mobile will also be offering the Note but with a hefty £149.99 price-tag on the device.

Past the up-front cost the Note will be available via T-Mobile on an 18-month contract for £40.85 per month, or £35.75 per month on a longer 24-month contract.

As well as the sim-free £629 price offered by the Carphone Warehouse, the Note has also appeared on Amazon, going for -- a still sizable -- £596.48 via TheKingofGadgets.

Unveiled at Samsung's event back in mid-October, the Galaxy Note is pretty much the first high-end smartphone to be released by the Korean tech-giant since Apple launched its iPhone 4S.

Though not packing the frosty Ice Cream Sandwich goodness of its forthcoming Samsung-born sibling, the Galaxy Nexus does house a number of unique selling points, chief of which is its gargantuan size.

The Note is, for lack of a better word, huge. Packing a 5.3 inch high definition Super AMOLED display, the device is one of the biggest smartphones out there -- fans of skinny jeans beware, the device is so big packing it into your pocket is a feat of herculean strength.

As well as its titan-sized screen the Note also promises to house a few quirky features. The device comes with an "S Pen " -- basically a stylus with sensors that help detect how hard the user is pressing on the screen.

The Note also contains a slew of "exclusive" apps designed for use with the S Pen. The apps listed include Soonr, OmniSketch, Zen Brush, ComicBook, and iAnnotate PDF -- all of which allow the user to draw on the screen or write notes using the S Pen.

Also, covering the basics, the note packs a sizable 1.4GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera and is available in both 16GB and 32GB versions

Stay tuned for a full review of the Note later in November.