Google yesterday unveiled Nexus S, the successor to the Nexus One smartphone that was launched early this year.
The new Android phone will be manufactured by Samsung and will be hitting the American stores on December 16. This is expected to be followed by a launch in the UK on December 20.
However, the most advertised feature on the Nexus S appears to be its support for NFC (Near Field Communications) technology. This functionality will enable the smartphone to interact with NFC tags that are embedded on objects like t-shirts, posters and other everyday commodities. The support for this new feature may also usher in a new era of interactive applications and advertisements that could take advantage of the smartphone's ability to capture NFC tag data.
It is worth noting that Apple too is expected to offer NFC support on the next generation iPhone. Last year, we had reported on a few technology patents filed by Apple engineers that hinted at work in this area. More recently, there were reports that claimed that Apple would be bringing NFC technology on the next generation iPhone that would enable users to run any compatible Mac as their own Mac.
Despite the innovation on the NFC front, Nexus S fails to impress. A quick comparison between the hardware features on Nexus S vis-a-vis Nexus One shows very few significant advancements made in the new phone. You can check out a side-by-side comparison chart of the two phones here.
Nexus S will be available to customers in the US for an unsubsidized price of $529. These customers may also alternately pick a T-Mobile locked variant for $199. This will however require customers to sign a two year service agreement. The phone will be available in the UK at an unsubsidized price of £549 and £35 on contract. American customers may purchase a Nexus S starting December 16 from one of the Best Buy retail stores or online from the T-Mobile website. The phone will be available at Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse in the UK.
Here is a glimpse at the official Tech specs of Nexus S:
Connectivity
- Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
- Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700
- HSPA type: HSDPA (7.2Mbps) HSUPA (5.76Mbps)
- Wi-Fi 802.11 n/b/g
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- Near Field Communication (NFC)
- Assisted GPS (A-GPS)
- microUSB 2.0
Display
- 4.0" WVGA (480x800)
- Contour Display with curved glass screen
- Super AMOLED
- 235 ppi
- Capacitive touch sensor
- Anti-fingerprint display coating
Size and weight
- 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm
- 129g
Hardware
- Haptic feedback vibration
- Three-axis gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Digital compass
- Proximity sensor
- Light sensor
Processor and memory
- 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) processor
- 16GB iNAND flash memory
Cameras and multimedia
- Back-facing: 5 megapixels (2560x1920)
- 720 x 480 video resolution
- H.264, H.263 MPEG4 video recording
- Auto focus
- Flash
- Front-facing: VGA (640x480)
- 3.5mm, 4-conductor headset jack (stereo audio plus microphone)
- Earpiece and microphone
- Software noise-cancellation
Battery
- Talk time up to 6.7 hours on 3G (14 hours on 2G)
- Standby time up to 17.8 days on 3G (29.7 days on 2G)
- 1500 mAH Lithum Ion
Software
- Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Android Market
- Calendar
- Gmail
- Google Earth
- Google Maps with Navigation
- Google Search
- Google Talk
- Google Voice
- Voice Actions
- YouTube
Here is a video demo of the phone in action:
Don't forget to tell us your thoughts on this new Google smartphone. Do you think it will be able to compete with Apple's iPhone 4?
[via Google Mobile]
You know, I like google. But this phone fails to impress. Still using a lithium ion battery instead of a polymer? That’s stupid. It’s the same processor as the nexus one, and I really thought they’d up the internal storage to at least 32 or 64. When are they going to step it up and really give the iPhone a run for the money?
Not impressed about that new google phone. Has the same cortex A8 as they epic 4G I had and I gave that back up for the iPhone 4. Gingerbread is just a little refresh to there froyo. But I’ll be looking out for when google makes a better phone with honeycomb. That should be the phone to watch.
Not impressed at all, the Nexus S made by Samsung offer less than the Nexus One made by HTC: no microSD anymore -> 16GB is the maximum while the Nexus One microSD was able to go up to 32GB, shorter talk time…
It is also supported by less operators, only T-mobile.
This is such a Galaxy S influence
when nexus 1 came out the hype was so much I gave my 3GS to my daughter and bought it it was a disapointment I tried to swap it with my daughter but she wouldn’t give me back the iPhone so i sold it for 100 pounds less than what I bought it for then went and bought another iPhone this will be a disappointment as well
surely that cant be right…29.7 days on standby 2g….