Samsung Galaxy S Advance Official: Midrange Curvy Android

Samsung has revealed a new midrange Android smartphone, the Galaxy S Advance, packing a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and dual-core 1GHz processor and intended to push the company's Hub services. Similar to – though smaller than – the bestselling Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S Advance has a 5-megapixel camera, WVGA display and 768MB of RAM, slotting Samsung's ChatON IM app along with music, ebook and gaming download Hubs into Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

There's also Find My Mobile, a phone tracking and remote security service similar to Apple's Find My iPhone service. That allows owners to remotely locate their missing Galaxy S Advance via a web interface, lock it, or wipe its 16GB of storage.

A front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera and HSPA 14.4Mbps (network depending) connectivity round out the main specs, with TouchWiz making another appearance too. Samsung will apparently release the Galaxy S Advance in Russia first, with the smartphone due to arrive there in February, followed by staggered launches in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China.

However, the handset has already shown up in the Philippines, with HardwareZone grabbing some hands-on play with the Galaxy S Advance; most interesting is the slightly curved lower fascia, which somewhat resembles the Galaxy Nexus. They claim the smartphone will be priced at the equivalent of $536 SIM-free and unlocked.

[via Engadget]