Google has formally introduced the Samsung Nexus S, the first smartphone fitted with the long-awaited Android 2.3 (Gingerbread release) operating system.
Google said the smartphone, which has a 4-inch Super Active-Matrix, Organic, Light-Emitting Diode (AmoLED) screen, like the members of the popular Samsung Galaxy S family. The Nexus S will be on sale from December 20 at The Carphone Warehouse and BestBuy but will cost £550 for the sim-free version, over £200 more than the US release at $529 (£335). It will also be available for free within a £35 per month contract.
The Nexus S is powered by a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, includes a five megapixel rear-facing camera and VGA front camera for video chat. It runs Android 2.3, the Gingerbread version optimised for running applications on tablet computers.
Gingerbread boasts user interface refinements. There is a new keyboard and text selection tool, Internet (VoIP/SIP) calling, better copy/paste functionality, and gyroscope sensor support for better gaming.
The real gem in the Nexus S may be the near field communication (NFC) chip hinted at by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 Summit three weeks ago.
The chip uses short-range wireless technology to let owners use their Nexus S devices as clients for swiping against point-of-sale terminals to make purchases. NFC chipmaker NXP is providing an open source software stack for the NFC chip in the Nexus.
Android 2.3 supports these activities, communicating with the NFC chip in the new phone and future Android handsets. Developers will be able to write mobile payment apps with Android 2.3.
In his blog, Rubin also maintained that Google and its partners are seeing more than 200,000 Android devices activated daily worldwide. That is spread across more than 100 different devices, from smartphones to tablets to Google TV-connected devices such as the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray players.
Samsung is a major beneficiary of Android’s rise, selling more than three million Galaxy S phones, and capturing the mantle as leading Android handset provider in the US by accounting for a third of all Android phones sold in the country.
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Great piece of kit, no doubt, but the pricing is a joke. Even allowing an extortionate £50 for shipping, 10% import duty and 20% for VAT, it still comes to just over £500. And that assumes paying full retail price!