Info roundup: Samsung Galaxy S3 in Europe – prices, availability, and carriers

European readers, how eager you are to get your hands on the Galaxy S3? That’s a rhetorical question, of course, we know that most of you are uber-excited over Samsung’s beautiful new flagship phone. To make the wait easier, check out our Galaxy S3 spec list.

Now, let’s get down to business. Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S3 will be available in Europe by the end of May. But we’ve gone the extra mile to bring you a roundup of the information we have on the pricing, availability, release dates, carriers, and versions of the Galaxy S3 in Europe, including major markets such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and others.

That’s a lot of information in here, and we’ll keep this post update with even more news. Also, we have a similar Galaxy S3 round up for the United States, so check it out if you are interested.

Samsung Galaxy S3 European carriers and availability

There are a multitude of carriers around Europe, but a handful of really big ones, most of which will mostly carry the Galaxy S3. We are talking about Vodafone (present in the UK, Germany, Italy, Romania, the Netherlands, and others), Orange (present in the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and others), O2 (in UK, Ireland, Germany, the Czech Republic), T-Mobile and others.

Vodafone is set to be the first carrier to offer the Samsung Galaxy S3 (16GB and the exclusive 32GB version, white and blue), starting on May 29. The 32GB version will be exclusive to Vodafone for a month. In Europe, unlike the US, carriers seldom have exclusivity for the major devices, so expect to see the S3 on all major networks.

Here’s what we know so far about the Galaxy S3’s availability in major European countries:

Galaxy S3 availability in UK

Release date: May 29

Available on:

• Vodafone
• Orange
• Three
• Carphone Warehouse (first 1000 pre-orders (pay monthly) get a free Galaxy Tab and a free car charger)
• Phones4U

Pricing: not yet available for contracts. Off-contract, the device is listed from £499.95.

Galaxy S3 availability in Germany

Release date: May 29

Available on:

• Vodafone
• Amazon.de
• Phone House
• Notebook.de
• Hoh.de

Pricing: not yet available for contracts. Off-contract, the device is listed from €597.

Galaxy S3 availability in France

Release date: May 29

Available on:

• Orange
• SFR
• Bouygues Télécom

Pricing: not yet available for contracts. Off-contract, the device is listed from €649.

Galaxy S3 availability in Italy

Release date: May 29

Available on:

• Vodafone
• TIM

Pricing: not yet available for contracts. Off-contract, the device is listed from €600.

Updating

We’re working hard to make our way through all the Galaxy S3 offers in major European countries. We’ll update this post with more info. Let us know if you get any details that we didn’t catch!