Nexus S Shipments Begin at Vodafone UK

As expected, Vodafone UK has just begun shipping the Nexus S smartphone in both black and white colors. Although the White Nexus S is exclusively available from the UK-based carrier, the standard black version will soon hit the shelves in other European countries.

In this regard, Samsung and Vodafone are expected to bring the Nexus S to no less than 24 countries, as we reported earlier.

Vodafone UK is the first European carrier to offer the smartphone directly, joining UK retailers Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy in rolling out the Android 2.3 phone.

The handset can be acquired for free with a £25 per month 2-year contract, for which customers will receive 100 minutes of voice calls, 500 texts and 500 MB data transfer (mobile Internet).

Those with greater needs will have to shell out a little extra. For £30 per month, they will get the Nexus S for free along with 600 minutes, unlimited texts, as well as 500 MB data.

With £35 per month, customers will get the Nexus S along with 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 750 MB mobile internet, all on a 2-year plan.

Customers who wish to get shorter term contracts will have to pay £40 for 18 months to get the Nexus S, and they will receive 900 minutes, unlimited texts and 750 MB mobile internet.

The Nexus S is the first smartphone launched on the market with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and it has just received the Android 2.3.3 update, along with the Nexus One.

The device is built around a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, complemented by a PowerVR SGX540 GPU and a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixels resolution.

As a side note, the handset is expected to be available in Italy for €549 in a few days.