Samsung Galaxy S Advance strides forth in official pics

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is official -- click through the pics above to ogle this 4-inch budget Android blower from every which way.

The advantageous Advance S plays host to a dual-core processor, and if you take a look at the 4-inch screen you'll notice it's slightly curved. Neat!

Despite the Advance S looking very much like a mid-range mobile, it's rocking a Super AMOLED screen, so fingers crossed it'll look as colourful and classy as its more expensive older Galaxy cousins.

Around the back eagle-eyed readers will spy a 5-megapixel camera, which isn't an especially high resolution for a snapper these days, but is more evidence that the Advance S will be wallet-friendly.

It's not the slimmest smart phone around, measuring 9.69mm thick -- compare that with the iPhone 4S' 9.3mm depth. But the Advance S should be easily slim enough to slide into the tightest of jeans pockets. It looks like the Advance S will come in either 8GB or 16GB size options, but if that's not enough space for you you'll be able to bump up the capacity using a microSD card. Crafty.

The Advance S will arrive running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, as well as Samsung's hilariously-named TouchWiz user interface. While that means the phone will likely arrive will some unwanted bloatware, you will get a handy feature called Find My Mobile, which lets you trace the phone's location online, and wipe its data remotely if needs be.

It's a shame it won't be running Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the latest version of Android. Nevertheless, we're always happy to welcome a new pony into the Samsung Galaxy stable.

We'll likely get a chance to play with the Advance S at Mobile World Congress in a few weeks' time, where we're also hoping to see the Samsung Galaxy S3. An exciting time for mobiles, so stay tuned. In the meantime, tell us whether the Advance S tickles your fancy in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.