FollowAt the Google I/O even which was held last week, there were no announcement made on the next Nexus device. However, Google had announced that will be releasing a special version of Samsung Galaxy S4 which would be called Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition running on stock Android.
How is the Google Edition version of S4 different from the Galaxy S4 which is already available in the market?
The Google Edition will run on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Also, it will not have Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. The regular version of S4 is preloaded with TouchWiz UI from Samsung.
The 16GB S4 Google Edition will be priced at $649. The unlocked device can be directly purchased through Google Play Store in the month of June. The release date of Galaxy S4 Google Edition is expected to be 26th June. Both AT&T and T-Mobile will be offering 4G LTE connectivity.
The tech specs of Galaxy S4 Google Edition are same as the regular version of S4. It comes with a huge 5inch display that supports 1080p display, a powerful Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB of memory, 16GB internal storage and a mammoth battery life. As mentioned before, what makes this device desirable is that it comes with vanilla Android out of the box. Since the device will be running stock version of Android, all the updates will be readily available for the device.
The moment you turn on the Google Edition phone, you will see the “vanilla” Android running on the device. Not only there is a difference in the software, but also there will be difference in the storage space. The regular edition of Galaxy S4 has got 16GB internal storage. However, much of the storage space is used up by the operating system and TouchWiz user interface.
At the Google I/O event, Google did not announce the successor device for Nexus 4. Many are considering that the Galax y S4 Google Edition that was unveiled by Hugo Barra at the event may be the next Nexus smartphone. At the event, Barra went on to say, “Google’s take on Android – and it feels really awesome on the Galaxy S4”.
The name ‘Google Edition’ is not the official name of the device. The name came into existence through an earlier rumor. Google has refrained from revealing any name for their newest smartphone. Also, they did not mention anything about releasing the phone in other countries outside US. However, we expect that very soon the Google Edition S4 will be available for UK market and other countries. It may also happen that Google can make the vanilla Android exclusively available S4 owners outside US.
