A hat trick of Canadian carriers are offering the Samsung ATIV S

Three major Canadian carriers are now offering the Windows Phone 8 powered Samsung ATIV S. If you can imagine a Samsung Galaxy S III running on Windows Phone 8, then you can picture this device. From the 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display to the dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 under the hood, the device matches the Android flagship model. One of the differences is the lower amount of RAM (1GB) in the Samsung ATIV S. Also, the 16GB of native storage on the Windows Phone 8 device is half that on the Samsung Galaxy S III.

Canadians aren't happy with three-year contracts, but until changes are made, they are stuck with them. The Samsung ATIV S is priced as low as $29 with a three-year pact from TELUS to $79.99 at Rogers and $99.95 from Bell. Don't want the handcuffs for 36 months? The off-contract pricing runs from $599.95 (Bell) to $650 (TELUS).

If you're interested in the Samsung ATIV S, it might be best not to delay. All three carriers say that the phone is available in limited quantities.

source: Bell, Rogers, TELUS via MobileSyrup