Google aims Nexus S smartphone at US, UK
Gingerbread taster
It's official: the next Nexus smartphone will be out on 20 December.
As expected, Samsung is the manufacturer, branding the Googlephone as the Nexus S. The handset will run Gingerbread - Android 2.3.
It'll sport a 4in, 480 x 800 display; a 5Mp camera; tri-band HSDPA 3G connectivity; 16GB of Flash storage; GPS; Bluetooth 2.1; 2.4GHz 802.11n and support for near-field communications (NFC) apps such as touch to pay.
There's a 1GHz Samsung CPU on board.
According to the Korean giant, the Nexus S "supports HD-like multimedia content". So almost HD, but not quite, then.
The Nexus S goes on sale on 20 December in the UK, from Carphone Warehouse. It goes on sale in the US four days earlier than that. ®
COMMENTS
Meh.
So what's that improved from the Nexus 1? It's very similar hardware, not even a higher resolution camera.
Just in time for Santa Claus and Chinese New Years / Tet in February
At last there is choice for these annual celebrations, with the latest OS, rather than a phone that can't be held or earlier generation Android.
Specs
"the Nexus S "supports HD-like multimedia content". So almost HD, but not quite, then."
A 480x800 display can't pull 1080p, sorry. Perhaps "HD-like" means supports clear images at 480x800@29.95fps, which would make the aspect ratio 15:9, rather than the "HD" 16:9. That's "-like" enough for me, except I'd have just injected a bit of black space above and below the vid to get a real 16:9 ratio...
Also a shame the camera takes a step backwards from the 8MP on the likes of HTC's phones to a mid-range 5MP "good enough for the iPhone" camera.
Limited market?
What about the rest of the World apart from US and UK?
In two minds
The contract on my HTC Hero runs out in a few weeks, so this arrives with perfect timing. A new version of Android... new gadgetty features I'll probably never use, a more responsive CPU
But why oh why did Google choose to let Samsung build their new phone? Samsung's build quality is AWFUL. The Galaxy is made of the cheapest plastics known to man, and any Samsung electrical device I've owned in the last 10 years has barely outlasted its 12 month warranty.
I think I'll need to see how it performs in a few "drop tests" in Carphone Warehouse before shelling out my pennies.
