Shots of AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note outed, said to feature NFC

Shots of AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note outed, no official word on NFC but tipsters show a board that is rumored to be from the Note with an NFC IC onboard

These are official leaked shots of the jumbo sized AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note. Last week Sam Mobile reported that it had proof that the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note would harbor an NFC chip. A recent trend with NFC smartphone announcements is to not feature NFC at all. AT&T and other Isis members have attempted to keep the NFC ability just until Isis is ready to roll, and hence we see a lot of NFC smartphones launching and have to wait until they get tear downs to see whether NFC is actually onboard.

However, our sources are telling us that AT&T is about to change that and start marketing NFC and actually enabling NFC in its phones. This is way overdue as many NFC smartphones are already in consumers’ hands and the only way to use the functionality is to root your phone and use a custom ROM to turn on the feature, which is something the general public is usually leery of doing. AT&T has held back NFC from taking off, so has Verizon, by preventing consumers from having the ability to use the technology. This has harmed the nascent industry and set it back here in the states, so NFC being enabled would be a welcome boost. Let’s hope we see NFC active in the Samsung Galaxy Note as the photo below suggests.

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy Note NFC smartphone which positions itself somewhere between a tablet and smartphone is said to ship with Android 2.3 and  not with Android 4.0. It will, of course, in good time receive its sticky update with Ice Cream Sandwich goodness, but with the UI updates that are required that may take a while until users can really experience Android Beam.

AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note NFC smartphone specifications

In Europe, the Samsung Galaxy Note ships with a 1.4GHz dual-core Exynos processor which has added to the appeal of the phone. However, as of yet we have no confirmation that the AT&T LTE Samsung Galaxy Note variant will come with that same processor.

• 5.29″WXGA Super AMOLED (C-type touch), Full Touch Bar (1280×800)
• Android OS: Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 21M + HSPA, LTE
• 8MP AF with LED flash, 2MP Camera Front
• HD Recording (1080) / MHL ver1.0
• A-GPS, GLONASS / BT v3.0 + HS / USB v2.0 / WiFi (802.11 a / b / g / n) / OTG
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Compass, Proximity, Light, Gyro sensor, Barometer
• TouchWiz 4.0 for Android, Multistage, Augmented Reality, Integrated phonebookwith SNS, IM, Email, Face Recognition, etc.
• WiFi calling, Qik
• NFC

As you can see, the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note is set to come with some impressive specifications and if we are to believe rumors a slice of NFC as well. However, it will be interesting to see whether Samsung includes a secure element inside this behemoth of an NFC smartphone. You can bet that AT&T will not allow Google Wallet on the Samsung Galaxy Note, and that may be reason enough not to include a secure element. AT&T is widely expected to use NFC SIM cards instead of the more secure embedded secure element. Google Wallet needs that embedded secure element to function.

We are expecting to hear more about the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note NFC smartphone over at CES where it is likely to be officially announced. February 14th is on the date in the display of the Samsung Galaxy Note photographs and that is our best guess for a release date at this time. So pricing, launch date and what processor the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note will feature are the questions we still need answering. As soon as we know, we will let you know straight from CES. As well as the Samsung Galaxy Note we will also keep our eyes peeled for the rumored SGH-i957 Celox HD to see if that too has some NFC goodness.