Sprint introduces $99 Samsung Conquer 4G — forgets its $99 Nexus S, Evo 4G

Sprint today officially launched the Samsung Conquer 4G for $99 (with a two- year contract), it’s first mid-range 4G device at that price.

While I’d normally welcome affordable 4G phone options, it’s hard to get excited about the Conquer’s arrival when Sprint already has much more capable 4G Android phones available for $99 (albeit with $50 rebates), including the Nexus S 4G and the insanely popular Evo 4G.

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The Conquer’s big advantage is that it’s $99 out the door, whereas you’ll have to pay $150 and wait for a $50 rebate for the Nexus S and Evo 4G. But given the vastly improved specs on the latter devices, you’d have to be crazy, or incredibly uninformed, to opt for the Conquer on Sprint.

The Conquer 4G sports a 1 gigahertz Snapdragon processor, which is comparable to the Evo 4G’s 1Ghz chip, but slightly slower than the more advanced Samsung Hummingbird 1Ghz CPU in the Nexus S. But its diminutive 3.5-inch screen (with a low 320 by 480 resolution) pales in comparison to the Evo 4G’s 4.3-inch display, or the bright Super AMOLED 4-inch display in the Nexus S. It also packs in a 3 megapixel rear camera (again lower than its Sprint brethren), and a front-facing 1.3MP camera.

Sprint says the Samsung Conquer 4G will be available on August 21.