Samsung has started sending out press invitations for a new event announcing “The next big thing is here.” The invites make it clear that we should look to October 24th for a press event. The exact venue isn't mentioned, though it does say it will take place at 7PM in New York City. Considering that we already have the Note 10.1 tablet out in the wild, the stylus in the invite seems to hint strongly that the Note 2′s upcoming U.S. launch will be the focus of the event.

The Note 2 arrived in South Korea yesterday and Samsung has already confirmed it plans to roll out the phablet to 128 countries via 260 carriers. Samsung also made it clear that its new smartphone would reach the U.S. and UK starting in October, so the timing for this event seems to concide with everything we've heard so far.

For those that need a reminder, the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Note 2 brings some pretty impressive specs to the table. Here's the skinny on what the phablet has to offer:

• 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display with 1280 x 720 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio
• Size: 80 x 151.1 x 9.4mm thin – thinner than its predecessor
• Weight: 180 grams
• 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 16/32/64GB on-board memory
• microSDHC support of up to 64GB of additional storage
• 8-megapixel rear-camera with Auto Focus, LED flash and HD video recording
• 2-megapixel front-facing camera
• HSPA+ support
• 4G LTE connectivity (in selected markets)
• NFC technology
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Wi-Fi Direct
• USB 2.0 support
• A-GPS and Glonass support
• 3,100mAh removable battery with faster charging – bigger capacity than its predecessor
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board out of the box with TouchWiz UI on top
• Redesigned S-Pen: wider and longer to offer better grip. The stylus now has a rubber tip to offer an experience more similar to pen and paper
• Colors: Marble White and Titanium Grey

Besides the likely October release, what else do we know about the Note 2 U.S. release pricing and timeframe? It's already been confirmed that five carriers are getting the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in the states: U.S. Cellular, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. The first carrier to get it will be the smallest of the five, U.S. Cellular – the pricing with a two-year contract is $299.99. After U.S. Cellular's late-October launch, the big four carriers will follow with early-to-mid November releases.

Do you plan to upgrade to Samsung's highly-anticipated Galaxy Note 2?