Last month the LG Optimus Elite was made official for both Sprint and Virgin Mobile, but only the Sprint variant's launch and pricing details were announced at that time. Fast-forward nearly a month and we now have availability details for the Virgin Mobile model, too. Virgin has announced that its Optimus Elite will be launching on May 15th for $149.99 (sans contract, natch), with pre-orders for the device kicking off today.

The Virgin Mobile Optimus Elite's claim to fame is that it's the first phone in the carrier's lineup to feature NFC and Google Wallet support. Other specs include a 3.5-inch display, 800MHz processor, 5-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. All that adds up to make a device that looks like a nice addition to Virgin's lineup, and it's good to see the carrier finally getting a handset with Google Wallet support. If your interest in the Virgin Mobile Optimus Elite has been piqued, you can check out Sydney's two-part video review of the Sprint model here and here.

Via Virgin Mobile