Nexus S pricing and availability confirmed
Vodacom has announced the availability and contract pricing of the Nexus S smartphone in South Africa. Prior to its rebranding effort Vodacom revealed that it planned to launch Google’s Nexus S in April 2011, but couldn’t confirm the price point at which the device would be sold.
Although the Nexus S is manufactured by Samsung and the Nexus One before it was built by HTC, Google themselves update the software of the devices. This has led to Nexus devices generally receiving updates to their underlying Android mobile operating system (OS) before other Android smartphones do.
Android is the mobile operating system (OS) developed by Google that powers the smartphones and tablets of many different device manufacturers.
Samsung also builds the Galaxy S from which the Nexus S seems to have inherited many traits, such as its 4-inch WVGA (480×800) capacitive touch display, 512MB RAM, processor and graphics unit.
There is a major difference in the software versions powering the Nexus S and Galaxy S, with Google’s device predictably running with the newest version of the Android operating system (version 2.3, or Gingerbread), while Samsung’s Galaxy S only recently received an update to Android FroYo (version 2.2).
Initially the biggest difference in hardware between the devices seemed to be the lack of microSD card slot in the Nexus S. Without support for expandable storage this means Nexus S users have to be satisfied with the 16GB built-in flash memory.
However, Vodacom has revealed that the South African version of the device will use a Super Clear LCD as opposed to a Super AMOLED display. Eldar Murtazin of Mobile Review compared the Super Clear LCD of the Samsung Wave II to the AMOLED displays of the Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Wave, and Nokia N8 last year and found the screen to be “excellent”.
Murtazin did add that Super Clear LCD “consumes more energy than Super AMOLED” and that he couldn’t comment on how well Super Clear LCD performs in the sun.
The Nexus S is due to be available from Vodacom in mid-April 2011 on a per-minute Business Call contract for R249 per month, which includes 30MB of data per month for the first three months.
This compares relatively unfavourably against Vodacom’s 16GB iPhone 4 deal on the same contract, which includes 110MB of data per month for duration of the contract at the same price.
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