Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab 7.7 was announced at IFA 2011 at the very beginning of this month. Many were excited to hear about the high density Super AMOLED Plus display and the 1.4GHz dual-core CPU. Given the excitement, and the popularity of the original Galaxy Tab 7 in the US, it’s surprising that we saw reports that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 might not become available in the US. Fortunately, we can now say with confidence that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be reaching US shores, thanks to the FCC.

Engadget dug up the FCC filing, and while not much detail is revealed, we can see some simple diagrams (click through to Engadget to see), along with the the logo that will be printed on the back of the device, which indicates that the particular model going through the FCC is WiFi-only. Separate testing will need to be done on a model that features WLAN connectivity.

The original report of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 (and the Galaxy Note) not coming to the US came from GottaBeMobile. The information came from a Samsung representative who said that there were “no plans” for launching the Tab 7.7 (and the Galaxy Note) in the US. It’s understandable how this could have been interpreted as Samsung effectively saying that these devices wouldn’t be coming to the US, but it seems clear in hindsight that the rep was referring to the fact that US plans were not yet made, finalized, or otherwise ready to be commented on. Saying that there a “no plans” is a pretty silly way to say that if you ask me!

Miscommunication is never fun, but I’m happy that it was merely that, rather than Samsung actually deciding not to launch both the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note in the states.

Though the Galaxy Note hasn’t yet cropped up in the FCC, we’ve been expecting to see it in the US at some point, and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 filing gives us confidence that it will eventually become available in the region..

It’s about time Samsung got a true successor to the Galaxy Tab 7 out the door. Today at IDF they’ve announced the somewhat leaked Galaxy Tab 7.7, which features one of the largest AMOLED displays ever seen on a consumer mobile device.

Please excuse the video title typo!

The CPU has been upgraded to a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU which is apparently of Samsung’s creation, which they say can run 1080p video just fine along with DivX support; they’ve otherwise been quite quiet about the specifics so far. This sets the Tab 7.7 apart from most other Honeycomb tablets which use Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core CPU which runs at 1GHz.

The press release lists the RAM at 8GB, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that is a typo. We’re probably looking at 1GB of RAM. On the capacity side, you’ll be looking at your classic 16/32/64GB flavors with a microSD slot for adding even more.

From my experience with the AMOLED display on Samsung’s Nexus S, I can say that I’m quite excited to see the Tab 7.7 in person. This is the first mobile device that I’d actually want to watch movies on. Thanks to the AMOLED technology you can expect the 1280×800 screen to have an exceptional contrast ratio when compared to other mobile devices (and even some TVs), most of which use LCD technology.

The Tab 7.7 runs Honeycomb 3.2 out of the box with Samsung’s custom TouchWiz modifications, and they’ve brought the device down to an impressive 7.89mm thick and 335 grams (from the original 12mm thickness and 380 grams)! The back is made out of aluminum and the whole device does look impressively svelte.

The cameras have sadly not seen a big bump in MP (just 3MP on the rear camera and 2MP on the front-camera), but it’s quite possible that the optics have been upgraded. Both cameras have sufficient resolution for capturing 720p HD video, though Samsung hasn’t clearly stated that the device will be able to record at such resolutions.

It sounds like initially the Tab 7.7 is going to be released with carriers, but we may eventually see a WiFi-only version, as we did with the original Tab 7.

The unit has HSPA+ connectivity, and Samsung’s press release says it can make calls, but it isn’t clear whether they are talking about true cellular voice calls or VoIP.

Like the Sony Tablet S, the Tab 7.7 has infrared built-in for remote control functionality on your TV and other IR equipped devices.

Samsung says that the Tab 7.7 supports something called “WiFi channel bonding” which is used for “bonding two channels into one for improved network connection and data transfer at up to twice the speed”.

If Samsung can keep the AMOLED display from making the device too expensive, they could have a big hit with the Galaxy Tab 7.7.