Samsung today announced that it has sold 5 million Samsung Galaxy Notes since the hybrid stylus-driven device was launched five months ago.

While the Note was well received by some reviewers, it took criticism for its over-sized frame, which sits somewhere between a tablet and a smartphone.

The Galaxy Note features an over-sized 5.3-inch screen and comes in the wake of less-enthusiastically received efforts in this category, such as the 5.5-inch Streak from Dell.

The LTE-capable Galaxy Note for AT&T here in the United States comes running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which Samsung says will be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich, and packs a whopping 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 2400 mAh, rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and 16GB of internal memory (upgradable to 32 GB).

As of the fourth quarter 2011, Samsung was the second largest smartphone OEM worldwide, grabbing 22.8 percent of total market share behind Apple (23.5 percent) and ahead of Nokia (12.4 percent), according to data from research firm IDC.