Samsung Galaxy S Advance Due April 30th In UK

The Samsung Galaxy S III is almost upon us (just a week to go until the big announcement), but not everyone can afford the top of the line smartphones. Samsung has today announced that its midrange model, the Galaxy S Advance, will be shipping in a few days time on April 30th in the UK. It might not quite be all singing and dancing, but it's a pretty respectable offering.

The Galaxy S Advance has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display with a 800x480 resolution, which we're assuming is the same PenTile matrix used on the original Galaxy S. Specs otherwise include a 1Ghz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 8/16GB of storage, five megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, and a 1,500mAh battery. There's also a microSD slot for cards up to 32GB, HSPA connectivity will jack you in at up to 14.4Mbit/s, and it all comes in a relatively slim package at 9.69mm thick.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy S Advance is running Gingerbread, and Samsung hasn't indicated whether or not the phone will be seeing an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. It's certainly not lacking in the power department, and we have to wonder why it simply didn't come with ICS out of the box.

Samsung say that Phones4u and Vodafone will both be offering the handset, and Clove has the handset in stock right now for £322.80 (~$522.75).