Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo announced its winter line-up of devices on Thursday, Oct. 11, which include two new handsets from the Samsung stable. The carrier will be offering the Note 2 phablet as well as an updated version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S3 called the Galaxy S3 Alpha.

Both the Galaxy smartphones, the Note 2 (SC-02E) and an the S3 Alpha (SC-03E), will support Docomo's Xi LTE service and will run on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system (out of the box).

The Galaxy Note 2 is expected to hit the shelves in November and its features and specification remain similar to the international variant. A 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor with 2GB of RAM will power the phablet. The Note 2 sports a massive 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with 128 x 720 pixels resolution.  The device has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a1.9-megapixel front-facing snapper. The Note 2 supports both Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities and a 3100mAh battery fuels the device. It will come pre-loaded with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

On the other hand, even though the Galaxy S3 Alpha resembles the original flagship S3 variant, the smartphone packs in major differences under the hood. The Galaxy S3 Alpha packs in 2GB of RAM instead of the 1GB that comes in the international version of S3. Additionally, the S3 Alpha's processor too has been bumped to a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor like the Note 2's. By contrast, the original Galaxy S3 comes with a quad-core Exynos 4412 processor that is clocked at 1.4GHz.

What's more, unlike most global users of the Galaxy S3, who are awaiting an upgrade from the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system; the Galaxy S3 Alpha will come with the Jelly Bean OS.

Galaxy S3 Alpha, the new and improved version of the S3, is expected to hit the Japanese market in December this year. The device maybe arriving without much hype; however, the S3 Alpha's hardware improvements will likely post a stiff challenge to the Note 2.

No information on whether the S3 Alpha will be available in other consumer markets apart from Japan is currently available.