MetroPCS will be bringing the Samsung Galaxy S III to its low-cost LTE plans later this year. We got some time with the new flagship phone.

MetroPCS will bring the blockbuster Samsung Galaxy S III to market with its no-contract 4G LTE plans later this year, according to MetroPCS handset chief Tony Lau. I got to spend a few minutes with the nation's fifth-largest carrier's new flagship.

The MetroPCS Galaxy S III looks and acts just like every other Galaxy S III. That's a good thing. The model I looked at resembled the , with a pure Samsung software build and no MetroPCS add-ons. There will be a few MetroPCS apps added, but not an overwhelming number, company reps said.

There are no compromises here. This is not a low-power or low-cost version of the phone; it's a real, honest-to-goodness GSIII, and it performed quickly and smoothly. When I first saw the phone, I initially thought it was the Sprint model (and except for the frequency bands supported, it basically is.) Only the MetroPCS logo gives it away. For a full rundown of the successful Galaxy S III, with its big 4.8-inch screen and various custom sharing features, read our .

I ran Ookla's Speedtest.net app and got some of the fastest LTE speeds I've ever seen on MetroPCS's network: 9.9Mbps down and 5.7Mbps up. MetroPCS's LTE speeds have been constrained so far by device speed and limited spectrum. In Philadelphia, for instance, MetroPCS runs 1.4-Mhz LTE channels, just one-seventh the size of Verizon's. But here in New York, Metro's on 5-Mhz channels, similar to and AT&T in Chicago. With a fast phone like the Galaxy S III, that means 8-10Mbps speeds become possible.

Web browsing felt fast, too, and I don't think that was just the network. Like all the other CDMA Galaxy S III models, the MetroPCS device has a 1.5-Ghz Qualcomm S4 processor, faster than anything else the carrier offers.

With the right service plan, the Galaxy S III will work as a Wi-Fi hotspot, which could be important to the large number of MetroPCS customers who use their mobile phone as their primary method of home Internet access.

New Plans, New Phones

At today's event, MetroPCS also announced a promotional $55 per month truly unlimited LTE plan, which MetroPCS president Tom Keys said would be used to help move more customers over to the 4G network. Currently, 700,000 of MetroPCS's 9.3 million users are on LTE, he said. But it was unclear whether the $55 per month promotion would apply to the Galaxy S III, as Keys said Metro reserves the right to end it at any time. If that happens, Metro's standard $50 per month LTE plan includes 2.5GB of data; 5GB costs $60, and there's a $70 unlimited plan.

The Galaxy S III is one of five new Android phones MetroPCS teased today. Along with the $149 LG Motion 4G, which was officially announced today, MetroPCS will be bringing a $149 Android phone from Coolpad with a 4-inch screen, a ZTE phone with a 4.3-inch display, and a smaller Samsung phone which works with MetroPCS's new voice-over-LTE service, Lau said.

MetroPCS reps didn't say how much the Galaxy S III would cost, but I expect it'll be a little lower than its no-contract price on Sprint, which is $549. Pressed on the issue, Lau only pointed out that Metro offers a $459 phone, the .