The Samsung Galaxy S3 has undoubtedly become one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2012, and is sure to be a heavy competitor to Apple's next iPhone 5. While the Korea-based company has not yet officially announced the launch, a leaked press invite for their London event may have revealed the date.

At the end of March a photo that was believed to be the device leaked, with its home screen displaying the date May 22nd 2012. This seems even more probable now, as an invitation has surfaced for Samsung's event in London. The invite has a picture of the supposed device, with the title Samsung Galaxy SIII The New Generation Coming.

This date seems to line up with Samsung's intentions for a mid-year release, and earlier reports have suggested that the flagship phone would be unveiled in April or May. The photo initially began to surface on a number of Korean websites including Daum and Yahoo Korea before making its way to tech sites such as Ubergizmo and Tech Radar.

The image certainly suggests a sleek design, with the words Fast. Vivid. Slim. sprawled across the top of the invite above the rendering. It is possible that this is a very clever fan mockup, since Samsung has not official confirmed anything, but the date does line up with previous clues.

On April 4th it was reported that Samsung had begun its carrier testing on the new product in Korea. The company did this with the intention of getting the device out in a timely manner, the report said, indicating that the launch could be soon.

And excitement seems to be running high, as 10 million units have already been preordered by fans. This is more than the Samsung Galaxy Note has sold to date, which amounts to 5 million.

The new Samsung phone is expected to support a host of new features, including a 4.8 inch screen with a full HD 1080p display. A quad-core Exynos 4212/Exynos 5250 is said to power the product, with 2GB of RAM and a 2 GHz processor.

Industry insider Eldar Murtazin tweeted claiming that he has no comments on the matter, pushing speculation even further.