Carriers in the US don’t have the best track record when it comes to offering a full selection of smartphones for their prepaid plans. Besides just cutting down on the sheer number of phones available, that can mean severely reduced options when we’re dealing with anything but a plain slate form factor. If you’re still not enamored with the idea of on-screen keyboards, AT&T and its GoPhone prepaid program are getting a new option that may be right up your alley, adding a new QWERTY slider Android to the lineup.

Samsung’s Galaxy Appeal is a relatively low-end Gingerbread-running Android, packing an 800MHz Snapdragon S1 under its hood. The rest of the phone’s hardware, from a 3.2-inch HVGA display, to its 512MB of RAM, and even its three-megapixel camera, continues to hit those same budget-configuration notes. Then again, this isn’t meant to be the kind of Android you use for watching Netflix, but a small, convenient phone for messaging, social networking, and light web usage.

AT&T has other QWERTY phones in its GoPhone stable, but while we’ve seen Androids with exposed keyboards like the HTC Status, or unusual folding designs like the Samsung DoubleTime, the Appeal is one of the only models that’s a traditional slider. AT&T claims it to be the first-such model in the GoPhone line, but we think the Pantech Crossover begs to differ. At the least, the Appeal is a slightly higher-end model than the Crossover, and features some more professional-looking styling.

Walmart gets first crack at the Galaxy Appeal, starting June 5. Wider availability will follow a little over a month later, on July 15. Look for the phone to sell for just about $150.

Source: AT&T