Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition Announced at Google I/O 2013
Google has announced a version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 that runs stock Android. Priced at US$649, it will be available on the Google Play store on June 26. It's unknown at the moment if this device will be sold in other markets.
While Google didn’t announce a Nexus 5 on the first day of Google I/O, it did announce a ‘new’ smartphone in the form of an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 running stock Android. Besides being TouchWiz-less, this Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition will receive prompt system updates from the Mountain View-based company.
Priced at US$649 and available on the Google Play store starting from June 26, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition has 16GB of internal storage, runs on U.S. network carriers T-Mobile and AT&T, and supports LTE (remember, the Nexus 4 doesn’t). At the moment, there are still a lot of questions unanswered about this device. For example, will it be running the octa-core Exynos 5 or the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor? (It’s very likely to be the latter due to LTE support.) Secondly, will Google port over some of the new features on the mainstream Galaxy S4 into vanilla Android? And can its firmware be used on the mainstream Galaxy S4, so that the user is able to enjoy the ‘Nexus user experience’. Also, there’s no word on international availability yet.
Great hardware with vanilla Android - is this the ultimate Android smartphone this year?
Source: Google I/O 2013.
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