Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon Announce Samsung Galaxy S Variants

Douglas Carter Jun 28, 2010

Today was quite a day for Samsung, with the announcement by Sprint, T-Mobile USA, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless of a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S on each carrier, which joins AT&T's variant announced over a week ago. We already heard last Wednesday that T-Mobile's version would be called the Samsung Vibrant, but now we have some details for the other carriers as well. This looks to be the summer of the Samsung Galaxy S for sure.

Samsung USA's Newsroom posted up four separate announcements today in a surge that hearkens back to the rumored "worldwide launch" mentioned earlier. Engadget noted that "Scoring the top four US carriers plus a top-tier regional with a single family of smartphones in one fell swoop is a major achievement for any manufacturer."

Sprint's phone, called the Samsung Epic 4G, will join the HTC EVO 4G to give some variety to Sprint's 4G capable offerings. It's SuperAMOLED display and slide-out QWERTY keyboard offer a distinct difference from the HTC EVO 4G

T-Mobile USA's variant, correctly rumored to be the Samsung Vibrant, was covered on Wednesday, and sports two extra buttons over the standard Galaxy S, but without any trackball or optical pad. Their phone should hit store starting on July 21st, according to AndroidCentral. For pricing on the other variants, Engadget also mentioned that "if the market is any indication, $199.99 on contract seems like a good bet."

US Cellular was also mentioned to be receiving an unnamed variant of the Galaxy S in Samsung USA's press releases. No differences have yet to be seen regarding the specs of the device they will be carrying.

Verizon Wireless's variant, called the Fascinate, also seems to have the same base features as the regular Galaxy S devices. Also noted in the press release is the inclusion of Verizon's V-branded services onto the phone. The phone is also mentioned to be colored Mirror Black with chrome details.

Possibly important is that Verizon and Sprint's variants were the only two so far mentioned to have mobile hotspot support.

Pictured below are (in order) the Sprint Epic 4G and the T-Mobile Vibrant. No pictures for the Verizon or US Cellular version yet.