Samsung and Sprint announce the Conquer 4G; a new kind of budget-friendly phone

Do you remember Sprint’s Samsung Conquer 4G? You certainly should ’cause we showed it to you barely two weeks ago. Well, Samsung and Sprint have stopped with the foreplay and just went ahead and announced the thing. There’s no info on pricing and availability, but I’m guessing Sprint will let us know in the very near future.

Like we told you before, the Conquer 4G raises the bar for what a low-priced Android phone should be. While the phones’s 3.5-inch screen and 3.2 MP camera might tell us that this is just another cheapo Android device, its 4G speeds, front-facing camera, and 1 GHz CPU tell us otherwise. Here’s a summary of the Conquer 4G’s hardware specifications:

Android 2.3 Gingerbread1GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8655 processor3.5-inch screen with a 320×480 pixel resolutionSlider QWERTY keyboard3.2 MP back-facing camera with LED flash1.3 MP front-facing camera4G supportSprint ID

It’s hard to believe that this phone can go toe to toe with the once mighty Nexus One. At this pace, I expect to see low-end Android phones next year with 3D screens, NFC and dual-core processors. The Conquer 4G will be competing with other affordable phones on Sprint, like the Optimus S. And from this moment on, I hope every other OEM recognizes the Conquer 4G’s specs as the new blueprint for their future low-end Android phones.

We’ll keep an eye out for the Conquer 4G’s price and availability, and we’ll update this article once we have them. If the Conquer 4G launches with a price below $100, will any of you guys consider buying one?