Samsung Launches A Lightly Tweaked, LTE-Capable Galaxy Note 10.1 In Its Native Korea

Flawed though it may have been, I was a quite a fan of Samsung’s S Pen-friendly Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet — even with flashy new devices like the Note 2 on the market, I still think the whole concept just works best on a bigger screen. Samsung seems to be rather fond of the thing too, as it has just officially launched an LTE-capable version of the tab in its native Korea with a global launch slated for later in the year.

Access to LTE data speeds will be good enough for some, but the changelog doesn’t end there. The revamped Note 10.1 will also ship running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (fear not current Note 10.1 owners — your time will soon come) along with oft-touted features like the ability to draw quick commands and hover the S Pen over the screen for a quick view of calendar entries and folder contents.

Really though, one of the biggest draws of the support for Voice over LTE, which (as you’d imagine) in short routes your voice calls more efficiently over an LTE data network instead of falling back to a 3G GSM or CDMA network. As neat as the move is, the chances of the feature popping up in the forthcoming U.S. variant are pretty slim— the only carrier that currently supports Voice over LTE around these parts is MetroPCS (though that could all change now that a T-Mobile buyout is on the table). Given its lead in LTE network growth, it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that Verizon Wireless is working on it too, but the carrier has had some trouble making things work properly — the service was originally set to debut this year but is now slated to rollout in late 2013.