Google is back in the smartphone sales business. The Samsung-built Galaxy Nexus went on sale Tuesday in the Google Play store for $399 -- completely unlocked, as well as unladen by carrier contract fees.
The handset, like the Nexus One and Nexus S smartphones before it, runs an unaltered version of Android 4, the OS better known to gadget enthusiasts as Ice Cream Sandwich. The OS is just as Google originally designed it, free of any software additions or interface skins introduced by carrier partners.
Hardware-wise, the Galaxy Nexus sold directly by Google is essentially the same Galaxy Nexus being sold by Sprint and Verizon. Each version has the same 4.65-inch, Super AMOLED, 1280x720 display, the same 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 5-megapixel rear camera.
Nonetheless, there are still a few key differences among all the phone versions.
Like the Sprint version, the direct-from-Google variant works with the Google Wallet mobile payments system. And while the Sprint and Verizon versions (both selling for $200 on a 2-year contract) pack 32GB of storage, the Google-sold version comes with just 16GB of storage.
Finally, the direct-from-Google version is sold "unlocked," and can operate on both GSM and HSPA+ cellular networks used by T-Mobile, AT&T and smaller regional carriers.
The Galaxy Nexus' arrival in Google Play marks the first time that Google has directly sold a phone to customers since it hawked the Nexus One, built by HTC, back in 2010. The Nexus One launched in January 2010 and by the following July, the sales experiment was over.
There's no word yet on how long Google plans to sell the Galaxy Nexus, or if it will start selling other physical goods (a tablet maybe?) in Google Play. Nonetheless, the phone is listed under a new "devices" section of the online store, so maybe we'll see more gadgets listed there someday.
Andy Rubin, the senior vice president at Google who oversees the company's Android business, said in a blog post that the move to sell the Galaxy Nexus was made with the consumer in mind.
"We want to give you a place to purchase Nexus devices that work really well with your digital entertainment," Rubin said, noting that Google is also throwing in a $10 Google Wallet credit too.
For now, Google is only selling the unlocked Galaxy Nexus in the U.S., but the company plans to sell the phone in other countries as well.
