Samsung Galaxy Note:freedom's just a stylus away

Samsung Galaxy Note

When the Samsung Galaxy Note was unveiled in September, the consumer electronics giant left us with one glaring unanswered question -- is the Galaxy Note a phone or a tablet?

On Tuesday, Samsung made it clear -- the Galaxy Note is a phone. It makes phone calls after all.

But it's also a large phone. Mini-tablet sized you could say, with a 5.3-inch touch screen sitting between a growing sea of 7-inch tablets and Samsung's own upcoming Galaxy Nexus phone that will feature a 4.65-inch display.

Samsung made the disclosure along with a list of specs for the new device posted below a new advertisement on YouTube for the Galaxy Note that shows the phone's stylus -- yes, a stylus -- being used to take notes, draw, capture screen shots and other functions. Samsung calls the stylus the "S Pen." A shout-out goes to the blog PocketNow for first reporting on the new ad.

So far the Galaxy Note has been shown running a modified version of Android Gingerbread. There's no word yet on whether it'll be upgraded to Google's newer Android release, Ice Cream Sandwich, whenever it launches in the U.S., and no word yet on price.