Galaxy Note II Shipping With Incomplete Software, Missing Features?

Samsung’s tried to think up a whole bunch of ways to take the most advantage of the Galaxy Note II’s unique hardware: its super-large screen and its stylus. Some of those for the latter include things like hover events, but to really make the most of all that screen space, Samsung came up with a way to run two apps simultaneously, with a split-screen display. As the first Note IIs reach customer hands, however, their owners are noticing that feature’s suspiciously absent.

Samsung demoed the split-screen multitasking in a video for the Korean version of the Note II. There’s some speculation now that in a rush to get the firmware ready for the international version of the phone, Samsung didn’t have enough time to deliver this split-screen mode. It’s unlikely the manufacturer would altogether abandon plans for the feature, so there’s hope at the moment that Samsung will come up with an update in the coming weeks that brings this trick to the phone.

This also raises the question of whether or not the US carrier versions of the Note II will similarly be lacking split-screen at launch; perhaps Samsung will address the topic at its October 24 event.