Well, this is… interesting.
It looks like AT&T customers are finally (just 7 months late!) getting an easy, subsidized way to get a Samsung Nexus S that plays friendly with the right 3G frequencies: beginning on July 24th (with pre-orders going up today), the handset will be going for $99 on a 2-year contract exclusively at Best Buy.
The interesting part: as far as I can tell, AT&T isn’t actually a part of all this. While Samsung’s very careful to say that the handset is “optimized for AT&T frequencies” in the press release, they make no other mention of the carrier’s involvement. At the least (even when one retailer has the exclusive), they usually have some generic quote from the carrier babbling on about how excited they are. Looks like Samsung just avoided AT&T almost entirely here.
You can check out our full review of the Nexus S right here.
The Specs
· 4” Super AMOLED™ Contour Display
· Support for AT&T’s 3G Network
· Android 2.3 Gingerbread (Pure, unmodified Android)
· Front-facing VGA (0.3 Megapixel) camera
· Rear-facing 5.0 Megapixel Camera and Camcorder
· Wi-Fi
· Bluetooth 2.1
· Tethering
· NFC Support
• Frequency: GSM850/900/1800/1900 UMTS 850/1900/2100
• Dimensions: 123.9 x 63 x 10.88(mm)
• Weight: 129 grams
• Display: Super AMOLED™, 480 x 800 pixels
• Battery: 1500mAh Li-ion standard battery
• Talk Time: Up to 6.5 hours
• Standby Time: Up to 450 hours