Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), the biggest phone maker in the world has played an important part in making Android the most popular mobile operating system. The Korean company has released a plethora of Galaxy devices to date, and S4 being the company’s new flagship phone.
While the Samsung Galaxy S4 is already available unlocked, it comes bloated with Samsung’s S apps. But now, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has announced that they would sell a version of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 running on its own “stock” version of Android, and not on Samsung’s modified version. This device will go on sale on the Play store starting from June 26, according to Hugo Barra, vice president of product management for Android.
“What you’re seeing here is real: this is a Samsung Galaxy S4 with the same software experience we ship on our Nexus devices. It’s Google’s take on Android and it feels awesome on the S4” said Barra at the Google’s I/O conference in San Francisco.
Now, coming to the pricing part, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has said that the Samsung Galaxy S4 would be available at an off contract price of $649. The device will come with 4G LTE feature, and would run on GSM carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, but it would also be able to run on mostly any GSM network, since it is unlocked. Also the device will receive prompt to update with each new version of Android, just like the Nexus phone. Users would now don’t need to rely on Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) to send the updates, instead, this job is now handled by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). To add to the excitement, the device would come with unlocked bootloader which means that now it’s really easy to install a custom ROM.
Those who were craving for a 4G LTE phone offering from Google would now be able to satisfy their requirements with the Galaxy S4, as the Nexus 4 doesn’t comes with any 4G LTE version. Samsung Galaxy S4 may just be the best Nexus phone yet, especially for those who want a powerful Android smartphone.
