Samsung Galaxy Appeal boosts AT&T's prepaid Android options

AT&T just announced plans to add the Samsung Galaxy Appeal to its ranks of prepaid GoPhone handsets. That should come as good news to Android fans, since despite its cuddly name, inside the Galaxy Appeal beats the cool, calculating heart of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Of course the Galaxy Appeal's specs aren't very impressive. Under the hood is a single-core 800MHz Cortex A5 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a tiny 1,300mAh battery. The phone's screen is small, too, measuring a mere 3.2 inches; plus the device only connects to 3G data.

The Samsung Galaxy Appeal does sport a physical QWERTY keypad, which is a rarity among today's smartphones. The real draw of this handset, however, are its low-priced prepaid service plans. Customers of AT&T GoPhone don't commit to onerous two-year contracts, and cost of data is cheap. For example a 1GB bucket sets you back $25 per month, whereas 200MB and 50MB run for $15 and $5, respectively.

Expect the Samsung Galaxy Appeal to hit Wal-Mart retail stores for $148.88 on June 5, and then also be sold by AT&T starting June 15 for $149.99.