Verizon today began selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first Android phone with Ice Cream Sandwich, for $300 with a two-year contract, as Google's OS takes a step forward.
The Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65-inch AMOLED display, 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera, 32-gigabytes of built-in storage and will support Verizon's 4G LTE network.
Samsung's new device is hitting the market in the U.S. nearly a month after its U.K. launch, receiving rave reviews. However, while the hardware in the device stacks up well against its competition, it's the software powering the handset that sets it apart.
Android ICS combines several features from its Gingerbread predecessor with Google's tablet OS, Honeycomb. The result is a platform that Google hopes will end the fragmentation issues Android has had in the past and elevate it far above Apple in the mobile space.
Before ICS, Android still held the market share lead over Apple's iOS platform, but many analysts felt the iPhone maker still had the better software. ICS closes the gap with improved text input and spell checking, a refined user interface that does away with all physical buttons and new features like resizable widgets and home screen folders.
ICS has several other features that make it a significant threat to iOS, but unfortunately for Google, the Galaxy Nexus may not be the phone that brings wide consumer recognition to its new platform in the U.S.. Verizon has buried the launch of the Galaxy Nexus late in the year with little advertising in the midst of heavy television campaigns for the Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Rezound.
The Galaxy Nexus is expected to fare well because of the number of dedicated users who want to get their hands on the new OS, but ICS likely won't gain traction until next year when it begins to roll out as an update for existing Android devices.
Still, ICS contains the biggest changes to the Android OS, yet and the Galaxy Nexus marks its official arrival in the U.S, making it a late entry in the race to be one of the biggest devices of the year.
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