A new phone from LG has been leaked today in a set of official renders or press images. Being called the LG Optimus Elite although I’d go as far as to call it much less than that. We’ve seen reports on this phone before with a rumored name of the LG Optimus Net and Gelato, but we can now confirm this phone and its “Elite” status.

Made available to the folks at Pocket Now this phone will be launching on both the Now Network, and Virgin Mobile in the next couple of months. Most likely late April or sometime in May. The Elite will feature a measly 800 Mhz single-core processor, a 3.2-inch HVGA display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and be paired with a 5 megapixel camera and LED flash.

Looking at the image is that a mirror of some sort next to the camera? Like those old Sony Ericsson phones from 2007? (I loved my k750i) It looks pretty weird to be a speaker grill. One good thing here is the phone will be very competitively priced, and it better be with dual-core LTE phones like the LG Lucid being released on Verizon today for only $79. One feature you wont want to miss on the LG Optimus Elite is the phone is NFC capable and can take advantage of those Optimus Tags, or Android Beam if it ever gets Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – but that is doubtful.

We should hear more from Virgin Mobile soon on the LG Optimus Elite so stay tuned if a decent budget smartphone would fit your needs.