AT&T to Offer Prepaid Samsung Galaxy Appeal Smartphone

AT&T today unveiled the Galaxy Appeal, the carrier's first prepaid side slider smartphone.

The $149.99 Samsung smartphone will be available at Walmart starting June 5 and in AT&T stores on July 15.

The device is AT&T's first prepaid smartphone with a slider QWERTY keyboard. It features a 3.2-inch touch screen and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There's a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera with 3x zoom and video capture at 24 frames per second.

The Appeal comes with 512MB of internal memory, expandable up to 32GB with a microSD card. It will run an 800-MHz Qualcomm MSM7225A processor.

Data plans will be available via AT&T's GoPhone program. Users can opt for 1GB of data for $25 per month, 200MB for $15, or 50MB for $5 per month. All data packages are available on the $50 Unlimited Talk & Text nationwide plan for GoPhone smartphones and the $25 Unlimited Text with 250 minutes nationwide GoPhone plan, AT&T said.

AT&T's other Samsung Galaxy devices include the smartphone-tablet hybrid (or phablet) Galaxy Note, as well as the popular Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab tablet.

Next up on the Galaxy lineup is the Galaxy S III, which hits Europe on May 29. U.S. carriers have not yet been announced, however, so it remains to be seen if AT&T will offer the coveted 4G LTE smartphone. You could always order an unlocked Galaxy S III, but the devices are currently running about $800 - without LTE. For more, see PCMag's Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy S III and the slideshow below.