South Korea's Samsung Electronics said it had launched a super-size version of its Galaxy Note smartphone, the latest salvo in its battle with Apple for the multi-billion-dollar handheld market, AFP said.

The Galaxy Note 10.1, which went on sale on Monday, August 6 in Germany and the United Arab Emirates, is almost twice as wide as its predecessor and nearly the size of a tablet.

The release comes as Samsung tries to make inroads in the tablet computer market, which is dominated by Apple's iPad. The two technology giants are also engaged in a bitter court battle over patent infringements.

The firm said the new Note would be officially released in the United States on August 15 and sometime next week in Britain and South Korea.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 -- powered by Google's Android software -- features a touchscreen which is 10.1-inches (25.6 centimetres) measured diagonally, considerably wider than the 5.3-inch screen of the previous Note.

Like its predecessor, it comes with a stylus called the "S pen" to write notes or draw on the screen. The new version allows users to split the screen in half to view two programs at once.

The new device is equipped with a quad-core processor that allows users to run multiple applications faster than the previous version, which had a dual-core processor.

Samsung -- the world's largest smartphone maker by shipments -- in November introduced the first version of its Galaxy Note, a device positioned between its flagship Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet computers.