14 DAY TRIAL // Regional carrier Cincinnati Bell has just announced the availability of the second Google phone, the Nexus S, which can be purchased for as low as $149.99 with a new two-year agreement.
Customers who purchase the smartphone online and wish to avoid being tied down by a long-term plan must pay $299.99 upfront for the Nexus S.
It appears that Cincinnati Bell is retailing the standard version of the Nexus S and not the 4G version.
While this is the second Google phone, it is the first to come with NFC (Near Field Technology) and a contour display.
Although the display isn't curved 'per se', the protection glass covering the display is indeed curved and makes the phone more comfortable when kept in one's palm.
Furthermore, Cincinnati Bell Nexus S comes with a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors support and 480 x 800 pixels resolution, instead of the inferior Super Clear LCD display, which is already shipping in various regions.
Those who are not familiar with the Nexus S hardware should know that the smartphone is equipped with a Cortex-A8 Hummingbird processor, clocked at 1GHz and complemented by a PowerVR SGX540 GPU.
Aimed at Android devs, the Nexus S was the first to run Google's Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) platform at launch.
The smartphone packs 16GB of internal memory and 512 MB RAM, but lacks microSD card slot for memory expansion.
Other highlights of the phone include HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, DLNA function, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support, built-in GPS receiver, as well as social networking integration through Social Hubs.
The Nexus S sports an average 5-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash and autofocus, as well as secondary VGA front-facing camera for video calls.
The phone's standard Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery should provide up to 713 hours (428 hours for 3G) of standby time or up to 14 hours (6 hours 40 minutes for 3G) of talk time.