It was the device that Android geeks had been dreaming of. A phone stuffed with all the best hardware, run on a clean, fast interface that does away with any bloatware.
When Google unveiled plans to sell a version of Samsung’s popular Galaxy S4 with its stock Android interface on Wednesday, many Android fans must have got their credit cards out ready to spend. The bigger question, though, is whether this is the start of a trend – a good one.
For folks who are wondering what the fuss is about, this new version of the Galaxy S4 – let’s call it the “GS4 Nexus” for now – offers the great screen, removable storage and other features that are missing from the current Nexus 4.
The GS4 Nexus has a 5-inch screen that’s not just larger than the Nexus 4’s 4.7-incher, but is also sharper with more pixels packed in. The Galaxy S4 also has LTE built in, unlike the current version of the Nexus 4.
And unlike almost all Google Nexus devices, it should come with a memory card slot to let you add more storage.
Most importantly, the special version of the Samsung best-seller comes with a “pure” Android interface without Samsung’s much-derided Touchwiz interface. That means no more of the cartoony interface and increasingly bloated apps that the Korean phone maker seems to want to differentiate itself with.
For the Android fan, the new Google phone offers the best of both worlds.
Now, the US$649 price tag will keep some folks away, especially after they’ve been used to the cheap Nexus 4 (US$349 for a 16GB model). Yet, Google’s version of the Galaxy S4 costs about the same as the US$$639.99 price in the United States for a regular, unsubsidised Galaxy S4.
The bigger question that should be asked is whether this is a one-off from Google and Samsung. Will the Android OS maker keep working with phone makers to offer the most popular makes with a clean Nexus interface in future?
The GS4 Nexus is an interesting and surprising development, especially with all the rumours about a new Nexus 5 or Motorola X phone that in the end didn’t turn up at Google’s I/O show this week.
Is Google simply slotting in an already popular phone with a bootloader just to make Android fans happy with a product announcement? Will it spend less time on creating special Nexus devices in future and just develop a “clean” version of what’s already out there?
Whatever the case, the good news is that the Nexus device is once again at the top in terms of hardware. The past few versions all had something “missing”.
The Nexus 4 now doesn’t have LTE, while the Samsung Galaxy Nexus before it had a dual-core instead of a quad-core processor. For a while, it seemed like the “best” hardware was to be left out on the Nexus phone, once the pride of Android users with the very first Nexus One, which had everything.
Happily for fans, the GS4 Nexus – sorry, we’re using that unofficial name liberally – seems to bring the mojo back to the Nexus line. If Samsung’s new flagship phone is the way forward for future Google devices, that’s surely good news for Android fans.
They include users who have already bought the regular Samsung Galaxy S4. They’ll be waiting for smart developers to take the ROM from the GS4 Nexus and make it available for their phones. That’s a grateful goodbye to the dreaded Touchwiz interface!
