Last month we were treated to a brief, blurry look at a Samsung QWERTY slider for Verizon that carried more than a passing resemblance to the Sprint's Epic 4G. We haven't heard much about it since then, but tonight some new photos of the handset have emerged that are decidedly clearer than the previous ones. The images show that the slider does indeed look like the Epic's long lost twin brother, although there are a few key differences between the two that are worth noting. As pointed out by Android Central, the Shift and FN keys have been shifted slightly, there appears to be an Internet shortcut key, and the emoticon key found on the Epic now looks to be a secondary function of the space bar. More important than those small keyboard changes, though, is the inclusion of Android 2.3.4 as well as that little 4G LTE indicator in the status bar.

There are still a lot of details about this mystery Samsung slider that are up in the air, like its actual name and what kind of specs it's packing, but it's good to get another peek at the unannounced device. We recently heard that the Epic's successor may be hitting Sprint sometime in Q3, so it's possible that Samsung is planning to push the Epic 2 to Verizon as well rather than leaving it as a Now Network exclusive like the OG Epic. Whether or not this Verizon handset will also be coming in Q3 remains to be seen, but you can be sure that we'll be crossing our fingers in the hopes that that'll help speed along the device's arrival. Hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Via Android Central