Vodafone has become Europe’s first mobile operator to be given a chance to sell Google’s own-branded smartphone the Nexus One, it emerged today.
“Vodafone announces that it will start selling Nexus One from Google directly through its stores and online in the UK from 30 April and in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and in France through SFR during May,” the company said, not revealing any details on the availability of the device for Ireland.
Nexus One will be available on both 18 and 24-month contracts. Price plans start from stg£25 a month on a 24-month contract.
Vodafone UK customers with the Nexus One can use up to 1GB of mobile data as part of their price plan, as well as take advantage of unlimited access to Wi-Fi in the home and free, publicly available services throughout the country.
Customers using Wi-Fi can also use an additional 1GB of data at premium BT Openzone hotspots throughout the UK.
Nexus One features the latest in Google innovation, including Google Maps Navigation (Beta), which offers sat-nav-style turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output and Street View. Also included are Google Mail, YouTube and access to Android Market, which has more than 40,000 applications.
Google Maps Navigation is an internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps for Android. Key features include Google Search and Search by voice to find your destination, the most recent maps, businesses and live traffic from Google Maps, and street and satellite views.
Nexus One hardware features
- – Display: 3.7″ AMOLED 480×800 WVGA display
- – Thinness: 11.5mm; Weight: 130g
- – Processor/speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 3G QSD8250 chipset, delivering speeds up to 1GHz
- – Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging
- – Onboard memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
- – Expandable memory: 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB)
- – Battery: Removable 1,400 mAh
- – Personalised laser engraving: Up to 50 characters on the back of the phone
By John Kennedy
