Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Launches Nexus S Phone In UK and US

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the better-battery-this-time-maybe dept.

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'."

17 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Links by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Informative
    Official website

    Info about Gingerbread

  2. KEYBOARD by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Give us a KEYBOARD FOOLS!

    The G2 is gonna be sweeeet!

    1. Re:KEYBOARD by leptons · · Score: 4, Insightful

      NO KEYBOARD, NO PURCHASE. it is simple as that for many people, including myself, and i am looking for an android phone to replace a long line of winmo phones with keyboards that i've owned. there is no substitute for a real keyboard. i am not going to use a device that blocks half of the screen real estate with an OSK. it is like paying for a device with half the screen size. . it just won't fly with the tasks i use the device for.

    2. Re:KEYBOARD by Reapman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Then get one with a keyboard... not sure what the issue is here. This isn't iPhone where there's only the Nexus S to choose from, there's at least several with slide out keyboards.

      Now if your PROVIDER doesn't offer one, then that's your Providers fault, not Google.

      As someone that doesn't mind not having a hardware keyboard, I rather like being able to choose keyboard or no keyboard. Just because the Nexus S doesn't have it, doesn't mean they all don't.

    3. Re:KEYBOARD by Rasperin · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are literally _tons_ of android phones with keyboards: Verizon Droid2, T-Mobile G1/G2, Sprint Moment and Epic, and that's just dusting the playing field. Now, I agree, I won't be buying the Nexus S for two reasons, A) Why pay full price for a phone that doesn't even support 4g and B) no keyboard.

      --
      WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
    4. Re:KEYBOARD by DeathFromSomewhere · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You've never used a keyboard like SlideIT have you? Swype (basically the same thing as SlideIT) currently has the record for fastest text message input. Software keyboard are not only faster, the devices lacking hardware keyboards can be smaller and lighter too. And less expensive. http://phandroid.com/2010/08/24/text-message-speed-record-broken-thanks-to-swype-on-the-samsung-galaxy-s/

      --
      -1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
    5. Re:KEYBOARD by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Informative

      NO KEYBOARD, NO PURCHASE. it is simple as that for many people, including myself

      And it's the other way around for many of us. I don't want to have a larger than necessary phone by wasting volume and weight on an unnecessary thing like a physical keyboard. Swype works great, and is WAY faster than I would be able to go with a tiny little cellphone keyboard. I'm a VERY fast touch typist on my computer, but a cellphone keyboard is too small to be of any real use now that we have UI advancements like Swype.

      If you want a keyboard on your phone, then get a phone with a keyboard. There is no one design that will appeal to everyone. It's not "wrong" for a phone to not have a physical keyboard, just wrong for you. :)

  3. Whoopi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That Google phone isn't just some random energy phenomenon traveling through space... it's a doorway. It leads to another place... the Nexus. It doesn't exist in our Universe... and it doesn't play by the same rules either. It's like being inside... joy. As if joy is a real thing that I could wrap around myself. I've never been so content... If you go into that Nexus, you're not going to care about the Apple iPhone or the Blackberry Storm or Palm Pre. All you're going to care about is how it feels to be there. And you're never going to come back.

  4. The best part is... by lowlymarine · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...it's just a re-badged Galaxy S. So those of us with GT-i9000s, Captivates, and Vibrants can basically expect every future version of Android within days of the source release. That's very good news, since last I heard Samsung had sold over 8 million Galaxy S devices so far.

    1. Re:The best part is... by mdm-adph · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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
    2. Re:The best part is... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:The best part is... by Zebedeu · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...it's just a re-badged Galaxy S. So those of us with GT-i9000s, Captivates, and Vibrants can basically expect every future version of Android within days of the source release.

      Ahah!
      Oh, you were serious.

      Look, it's Samsung. Don't expect any updates on time. In fact, don't expect any updates at all and you'll live happier.

      That's very good news, since last I heard Samsung had sold over 8 million Galaxy S devices so far.

      Yes, and they're already sold, meaning they already got your money and now they'd rather you buy the next one on the line.

      I feel your pain. I bought the original Galaxy. It had one very late update to 1.6 when everyone else was upgrading to 2.1.
      Your best bet is to either get a phone which somehow gathered community support around it, or get one of the Google supported "Nexus" devices.

      I'm probably getting this one someday, it just pains me to be giving money to Samsung.

  5. In reality, not a whole lot... by rehtonAesoohC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe this is a Gingerbread gripe moreso than a Nexus S gripe, but there aren't that many great features added.

    No phones have an NFC chip at all, so uh... thanks? Also, the Nexus S isn't geared towards gaining consumers, I think it's more geared towards developers. The big things that are great are:

    1) Text Selection (FINALLY!)
    2) VoIP and SIP stack (yeahhhhhh! Incoming video chat apps)
    3) New dalvik improvements for speed.

    Everything else is fluff.

  6. Re:Any GSM Phone on Any GSM Network? by pavon · · Score: 4, Informative

    T-Mobile will provide unlock codes for any phone they sell, at no charge. AT&T is a different story.

  7. Re:now about that only on T-Mobile thing... by ronocdh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

  8. Phone isn't about sales by Stuntmonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:now about that only on T-Mobile thing... by nine-times · · Score: 3, Informative

    From L Nexus S specs page:

    Quad-Band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
    Tri-Band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700

    AT&T's HSPA bands are 850 and 1900 (I can't find a good authoritative source).