Samsung announced this morning that they were launching a new smartphone, the Galaxy Ace Plus. The phone, which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, will release initially in Russia this month, and roll out to other countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and China later in the year. In the company’s press release, President of IT and Mobile Communications JK Shin says that “[i]n 2012, we will continue to make every effort to create an easy and fun mobile experience by expanding our incredibly popular GALAXY smartphone range, which is now one of the most recognized and successful mobile brands in the world.”

The press release includes the technical specs of the phone, which looks to be a decent device, though hardly top-of-the-line. It sports a 3.65-inch display, a 1 GHz processor, 3GB of on-board storage, and a microSD card slot that allows users to expand the device’s memory up to 32 GB.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this phone, though, is what it looks like. Most people by now are familiar with the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung. The conflict, which spans ten countries and twenty separate lawsuits, began when Apple took Samsung to court for copying Apple’s iOS devices. On top of that, it recently came to light that Samsung had hired an actress from one of Apple’s iPhone 4S commercials to be in one of their Galaxy Tab commercials. Now, they’ve announced a phone that looks almost identical to the iPhone 3G/3GS. Since it’s been a few years since the iPhone 3GS was released, here’s a refresher on what it looks like:

This is especially interesting in light of the recent reports that the iPhone is losing it’s “cool factor.” The iPhone’s design is apparently “boxy, flat and feeling stale,” and Apple is about to “be eaten by the collective Android gang.” And yet here we have Samsung, who continue to copy Apple blatantly, all the while insisting in court that they’re doing no such thing.

A request for comment to Apple has not yet received a response. It will be interesting to see what Apple’s response to this “new” phone will be, if anything. For all that the iPhone 3GS is on an older device, it’s still recognizable, and I have a hard time seeing Apple letting Samsung get away with such an obvious copy of their form factor.

[Source: Samsung Press Release]