New Galaxy Nexus to arrive in SA using Android 4.0

Samsung has announced the availability of the new Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone to use the Android 4.0 operating system. The new Nexus will be available in South Africa at the beginning of next year.

Samsung Electronics has announced the Galaxy Nexus, the world’s first smartphone running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the latest release of the Android smartphone platform. Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65‚ HD Super AMOLED display technology at 1280×720 HD resolution and a 1.2GHz dual core processor.

‚Samsung and Google have closely collaborated to push the mobile experience forward. We are pleased to deliver the best and latest Android smartphone experience for customers with Galaxy Nexus. We will continue to move forward with the Android platform to provide the most compelling consumer experience in the mobile world,‚ says Paulo Ferreira, Head of Mobile Product and Business Solutions at Samsung.

‚Ice Cream Sandwich demonstrates the Android platform’s continued innovation with this release which works on phones and tablets seamlessly (and everything in between). Features like Android Beam and Face Unlock show the innovative work our team is doing, and Galaxy Nexus showcases the power behind Ice Cream Sandwich,‚ said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile for Google.

The first smartphone to feature Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice Cream Sandwich brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. It has a redesigned user interface with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and a full web browsing experience. Galaxy Nexus features software navigation buttons, a first for Android smartphones. The lock screen, home screen, phone app, and everything in between has been rethought and redesigned to make Android simple, beautiful, and useful.

Ice Cream Sandwich also features a new People app, which lets you, browse friends, family, and co-workers, see their photos in high-resolution, and check their latest status updates from Google+ and other social networks. Galaxy Nexus features a redesigned camera which introduces panorama mode, 1080p video capture, zero-shutter lag, and effects like silly faces and background replacement.

Galaxy Nexus is also connected to the cloud, keeping your email, contacts, and all other data synced across your devices. You have access to more than 350,000 apps and games from Android Market.

Ice Cream Sandwich introduces innovations such as Face Unlock which uses facial recognition to unlock your phone. Additionally, using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, Android Beam allows you to quickly share web pages, apps, and YouTube videos with your friends by simply tapping your phones together. Samsung and Google will work with local developers and solution providers to further enhance the application ecosystem locally to leverage the NFC functionality. You can even use fun effects while shooting video or video chatting with Google Talk.

Google Experience

Galaxy Nexus is designed to provide a ‚pure Google,‚ experience, and with it, you will be the first to receive software upgrades and new applications as they become available.

It also features a number of Google Mobile services, including: Android Market, Gmail, Google Maps 5.0 with 3D maps and turn-by-turn navigation, Google Earth, Movie Studio, YouTube, syncing with Google Calendar, and a redesigned Google+ app.

Best-in-class hardware meets the most advanced software

Galaxy Nexus is the first smartphone to feature a 4.65” display with a market-leading resolution of 1280×720, ensuring you can enjoy Galaxy Nexus’ immersive entertainment capabilities and fast web browsing in superior clarity.

Succeeding the original Contour Display of Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus comes with a rounded shape that fits perfectly within your palm or to your face for phone calling. Hyper-skin backing on the battery cover improves the ergonomic feel of the device and makes the phone slip-resistant. At just 8.94mm thick, with a minimal 4.29mm bezel, Galaxy Nexus provides superb portability alongside an expansive screen.

Galaxy Nexus also features an ultra-fast 1.2GHz dual core processor, providing superior power and speed, ensuring you can take full advantage of Galaxy Nexus’ enhanced multitasking capabilities with ease, or enjoy the large, vivid display to its full capacity with high-definition gaming or video streaming. LTE or HSPA+ connectivity combined with a dual core processor delivers high-speed web browsing which ensures you always have the web at your fingertips, wherever you are.

Galaxy Nexus will be available in South Africa from early Q1 2012 at a RRP between R 6 999 – R7 299.

*