According to a newly leaked image from Engadget, Samsung’s Galaxy Stellar is expected to launch September 6 for the price of $99. As you may have gathered from earlier posts, the Stellar is Sammy’s budget offering for folks looking to take advantage of VZW’s 4G LTE, but still have money left over in their wallet. The Stellar is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, runs Ice Cream Sandwich, and has a 3.2MP back-facing camera for your snapshot needs. 

The 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy Stellar, what are you? We saw you a few weeks ago on a rebate form, and assumed you were a low to mid-range Android device. The price of $99 in this image appears to confirm that notion, but what’s this “Starter mode” all about? And why are you being sold as a device that is preloaded with Amazon Apps rather than the Google Play store?

Anyone willing to take a guess at any of this? Could this be one of the first Android devices made by a major manufacturer (in this case the Android manufacturer) to ditch the Google suite of apps and go with Amazon’s Appstore? An interesting move if true. I’ve got to admit, that the story of the Stellar has caught my interest, if nothing more than to find out how Amazon Apps are tied into the golden boy of Android phone making.

Thoughts?

I’m going to go out on a limb here (not much of one) and assume that the Samsung Galaxy Stellar is not the “newest Galaxy” that Samsung is planning to unveil on August 15. I could be wrong, but if this new Galaxy device is already appearing on rebate forms, I would assume it’s not worthy of a press event. With that said, what is it?

Well, we saw Samsung file for a trademark of the name Stellar back in early March, but that’s about all we know. We have however, seen a device codenamed the Jasper (SCH-i200) appear in both pictures and benchmarks in recent weeks. It’s a mid-range device with some decent power, but definitely not on the level of the Galaxy S3.

Over the weekend, another Samsung device jumped onto our radar as it cruised through the FCC, Bluetooth SIG, and WiFi Alliance. With model number SCH-i410, it looks like another headed to Verizon. As you may recall, the Samsung Stratosphere carried the model number SCH-i405, so one would assume that this is some sort of a follow-up device.

Is the Stellar the Stratosphere 2 or the Jasper? The mid-range battle begins!

Cheers ___, Bryan and  ___!