Google launches Nexus S with Android 2.3

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Google has today unveiled its second smartphone onto the market, along with the updated version of its mobile operating system.

The Nexus S comes just under a year after Google’s first foray into the handset market with the Nexus One. It will be the first device to ship with the Android 2.3 mobile OS – codenamed Gingerbread – before it eventually rolls out to other Android-based mobiles.

Features of the phone include a four inch ‘contour display’ designed to slip nicely into your hand or curve around your face, two cameras – one front and one rear facing, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and 16GB of internal memory.

“As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers what we call a “pure Google” experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates,” wrote Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering, on the Google blog.

The Nexus S will arrive on UK shores on 20 December – four days after the US release – and be available from either Carphone Warehouse or Best Buy.

It will be available exclusively on Vodafone contracts from £35 per month or at a pricey £549.95 SIM free.

After the rocky release of the Nexus One back in January due to unwise decisions in its route to retail, chief executive of the company Eric Schmidt claimed a second handset would not be coming from Google.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he said: “The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn't have to do a second one.”

In response to suggestions that criticism would follow, he added: “I called up the board and said: 'Ok, it worked. Congratulations - we're stopping.' We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale."

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