Galaxy S2 U.S. Release Date Pegged for Mid-September

The Samsung Galaxy S2, an enormously popular smartphone previously only available outside the United States, will be hitting U.S. shelves in the coming weeks.

At an event in New York City this week, Samsung announced the U.S. arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S2 and pegged it for a mid-September launch date. The phone, which is the successor to the Galaxy S phone, has sold more than 5 million units outside the U.S. since its launch in May. It will be carried on several U.S. networks including AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.

The AT&T version will launch on Sept. 18 and it hasn't been given a price, while the Sprint version will be priced at $199.99 at will launch on Sept. 16. The T-Mobile version hasn't been given a release date or price, but it's expected to be in the same neighborhood as the others.

The Sprint version will not actually be named Samsung Galaxy S2, but rather Samsung Epic 4G Touch.

The Galaxy lineup of phones has been one of the most popular non-iPhone smartphones in the world. The S2 in Europe hit three million phones sold in 55 days and have had five million purchased overall. The original Galaxy S nearly hit 10 million. Samsung has big expectations for the S2 in the U.S.

The second generation of the Galaxy S has received positive reviews. Its got the standard 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 800x480 4.5-inch (4.3-inch for AT&T) Super AMOLED screen that can be seen on other Samsung phones. It is also really thin, the thinnest of all of the Samsung Galaxy phones at 8.89 millimeters (AT&T version only).

It will be available on AT&T's 4G network as well as Sprint's. The phone also has a 8MP rear camera with flash, a front facing camera, it records 1080p HD quality and will use the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system. It will also have 16 GB of built-in storage capacity and at least 1600 Milliamps Hour (mAH) on all three versions.