Google Launches Nexus S Phone In UK and US
siliconbits writes "Google has made its second bid for a slice of the mobile phone market, with the launch of its Nexus S phone. The Samsung-built device comes less than 12 months after the launch of the firm's Nexus One, built by HTC, which failed to win over many consumers. The Nexus S will initially be launched in the UK and US, and will be available 'from the end of the month'."
Give us a KEYBOARD FOOLS!
The G2 is gonna be sweeeet!
Not... exactly. There's just enough difference between all the Captivates, Vibrants, Epics and the like to make what you talk about not possible. That might've actually have been Samsung's goal.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
No AT&T 3G, though.
On the tech specs, it's clearly listed as a quad-band phone with 850MHz compatibility. Given that AT&T's 3G in on the 850MHz band, I thought this meant the Nexus S would work fine at 3G. I recall the N900 wouldn't work on AT&T's 3G (but it would on Edge), because the phone's radio only supported 900MHz.
Or am I missing something here?
You missed out one important aspect: it's a rebadged Galaxy running stock software. That is why it'll be getting updates fast. Other Samsung phones probably won't.
This is not a "bid for a slice of the mobile phone market." Google's purpose is to offer a reference device to the marketplace, to bring order to the Android chaos.
Look at why it's so hard for Microsoft to innovate in operating systems. It's because the hardware vendors went in a million different directions, leaving MS with this huge diversity of configurations to support. And because MS has no hand in the hardware arena, they can't implement simple improvements like fast sleep/unsleep that require HW support.
This phone serves two purposes: (1) it gives Google a direct line to developers and the geek elite (who want OS updates first, and tend not to like the UI "enhancements" offered by the carriers) for testing their latest software, and (2) it signals to other manufacturers the direction of the Android platform and encourages them to support the same features (NFC, etc.) This phone doesn't have to sell millions of units to achieve its objective, most importantly it has to be the phone that developers and the geek elite want to have.