[Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] x72GYx:
There are a few aspects which I consider when buying a phone, and for determining if a phone is outdated or not.

I'll give you my thoughts on when the Note II will be "outdated" - keep in mind this is relative and subject to your own opinion.

The Note II is a great device and in my opinion, it will still be great to use for the coming 2 years (which is standard contract length).

The following aspects are which I use to determine if a phone is outdated:

Battery

The Note II has a decent battery, 3100 mAh is very good for any phone. But the capacity is relative to the hardware of the phone; because of the screen size and quad-core CPU you cannot compare this 1:1 with, say, a 4 inch dual-core phone. The hardware of the Note II drains alot more battery capacity than a 4 inch dual-core phone would. Nonetheless, you can get 36-40 hours out of the battery, which still is better than most phones nowadays.

Screen

The screen of the Note II isn't it's strongest aspect. Sure, the 5.5" 1280x720 screen is nice, but what is important is the ppi (pixels per inch). The Note II has 267 ppi. In a few months there will be some phones with a 5" 1920x1080 screen, resulting in 443 ppi. This is alot better than the Note II. For now the Note II has a good screen, but it will be less attractive once the 5" 1920x1080 phones are released.

The screen won't be damaged by normal use, which is good.

CPU

An Exynos 4412 quad-core CPU at 1.6 GHz is a very good CPU. One of the best at the present moment. However, the coming Intel CPU's in Android phones will give it a run for it's money.

GPU

The Note II comes with a quad-core Mali-400MP GPU clocked at 400 MHz. This will provide the Note II with all the graphics processing power it needs and won't be surpassed soon. It's supposed to render as well as the PS3 and XBox 360. However, NVidia's Tegra 4 (not released yet) will be better.

Memory

2 GB RAM is very good, and any phone won't need more for quite a while.

Build quality

It might feel a little cheap, but it is quite strong and well-made. I am using it without a case (but with flip cover) and after about 2 months, it is still undamaged. This may vary between users but for me, it's a plus.

Development possibilities

The Note II is easy to root and there is active development going on. No downside here besides the fact that once rooted on stock ROM, you can no longer recieve OTA updates from Samsung.

Camera

The 8 MP camerica is ok. There are already better camera's in some other phones, but alot of the currently available phones have worse camera's.

Update likeliness

Samsung will surely keep the phone updated with the latest Android versions available. No worries about not being able to have the latest Android version on your phone - and if Samsung decides to stop updating, the active development community will probably provide you with a custom ROM of the latest version.

In conclusion: in the coming few months the Note II will be surpassed by other phones. However, it is a decent phone and can surely last you 2 years without losing much of it's power. So, yes, in terms of specifications, it will be outdated by the end of 2013. However, it will still be a great device and in terms of consumer satisfaction, it will not be outdated for atleast 2 years.