Samsung Galaxy S3 up for pre-order for £500 on Amazon

Samsung's hotly-anticipated new flagship phone the Galaxy S3 has popped up for pre-order on Amazon's UK site. A cool £500 will snag you the new blower in either blue or white for delivery on the 30th.

The Galaxy S3 was unveiled at a rather crowded press event in London's Earls Court last week, with most UK operators immediately announcing their plans to offer the phone. Amazon is among the first to offer it SIM free though. At 500 smackers, it might not be the cheapest of purchases, but it often works out more economical in the long run to buy a phone outright than get it for free on an expensive 24-month contract.

If you fancy getting yourself the most exciting Android phone of the year, go and lay down a monkey on Amazon's UK page now. Carphone Warehouse are also offering the phone SIM free, also for 500 quid. Carphone also lets you compare the various deals it's going to be available on, which start at £31 per month on Vodafone -- and you get the phone for free.

For a cool half grand, you get a very bright and vivid 4.8-inch screen with a 720p resolution, a powerful quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and various interface tweaks, including eye tracking that knows when you're looking at it -- like some kind of paranoid guy on the bus.

The jury is still out on the the new 'pebble-like' design, with many of our commenters vehemently shouting their dislike, while others are quite taken with its smooth curves. That's a matter of opinion, but you've got to be pretty keen in order to shell out that kind of moolah.

If you're not quite sure if it's for you, then check out our hands-on preview as well as our comparison between the S3, the HTC One X and the iPhone 4S. You could also have a gander at our photo gallery and video. If you still can't decide, there's just no helping you. Maybe you could ask for some help on our Facebook page.