Sprint Nextel, the 3rd largest carrier by subscriber in United States, today announced its first Android phone – Samsung Moment. The release of Samsung Moment shows that Google’s Android operating system is gaining a lot of momentum as more and more carriers are willing to carrier Android-powered phones. The first carrier in the United States that offered Android-powered phone was T-Mobile. Verizon Wireless also recently announced the partnership with Google.

Samsung Moment is full touchscreen phone with a big 3.2-inch AMOLED screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Samsung Moment looks pretty much just like T-Mobile’s HTC Magic, which is also an Android-powered phone. Features of the Moment phone include a 3.2-megapixel digital camera, Stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a microSD memory expansion slot that supports up to 16GB.

“With a full QWERTY keyboard, Samsung Moment allows customers to easily access the thousands of applications available in the Android Market,” said Kevin Packingham, Sprint’s senior vice president of product development. “This is the second Android product that will be available from Sprint this holiday season.”

The Samsung Moment will be sold for $180 with a two-year contract, inline with T-Mobile’s HTC Magic which is currently sold for $179 also with two-year contract.