Ahead of an event in New York today, Samsung at last announced the release of the Galaxy S II smartphone to three carriers in the United States. The phone will be available on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, but release versions will not have access to 4G LTE networks.

Instead, the phone will use HSPA+ on AT&T and T-Mobile, along with WiMAX on Sprint, but the other internals of the Galaxy S II will remain the same across models. All models feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 800x480 4.5-inch screen (4.3 inches for the AT&T version), and Android 2.3 Gingerbread skinned with Samsung's TouchWiz interface.

Each phone will have 16GB of storage (standard) that is expandable by up to 32GB with a microSD card, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of recording 1080p video, and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera. Samsung announced over the weekend that it will soon be launching LTE versions of both the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab 8.9; apparently, those devices are not these devices.

The AT&T version of the phone is the thinnest at 8.89 millimeters, beating the Sprint version with its 9.65 millimeters. The Sprint version will be named "Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch" and launch on September 16 for $199.99, while the plain old "Galaxy S II" will launch September 18 on AT&T, with prices not yet announced. Neither pricing nor dates have yet been announced for T-Mobile.