Telstra may have been last to announce the availability of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but Australia's largest telco is claiming its customers will get their hands on the device first. It announced this morning that the hotly-anticipated Android phone would be available from tomorrow at selected flagship Telstra stores in Sydney and Melbourne, and from Thursday for most of its other retail outlets.
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The Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be available on a range of Telstra plans over 24 months, including $10 per month on the $59 Freedom Connect plan (totalling $69 per month), and at no extra monthly cost on the $79 Freedom Connect plan. The latter includes $800 worth of eligible calls, unlimited MessageBank and SMS and 2GB of data per month. The Galaxy Nexus will also be available on a selected range of Telstra business plans.
"Telstra customers have been counting down to the launch of the world's first Android 4.0 smartphone and we're delighted to be able to offer this groundbreaking device ahead of Christmas," said Andrew Volard, director of Telstra Mobile. "Our customers will also enjoy superior web browsing on the Galaxy Nexus thanks to Telstra's HSPA+ mobile download speeds. Customers can pull down web pages faster, stream video with less buffering, and access their social networks more quickly."
Telstra was beaten to the Galaxy Nexus announcement first by Vodafone and then by Optus, but both of its competitors are offering the Galaxy Nexus on pre-order only, whereas Telstra will have stock in its stores from tomorrow. Telstra says the Galaxy Nexus will be available to purchase from its flagship Sydney and Melbourne stores from tomorrow, while other Telstra stores and retail partners, including JB Hi-Fi and Fone Zone, will commence selling the phone from Thursday 15 December.
The Telstra announcement comes just a day before Samsung will officially launch the Galaxy Nexus in Australia. The company sent an invitation to Australian technology media last week, outlining details for a Galaxy Nexus media briefing on Wednesday 14 December. The event promises "a first look one-on-one briefing of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus," and will be hosted by Samsung Australia's vice president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the world's first smartphone to run the latest 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" version of Google's Android operating system. It was jointly unveiled by Google and Samsung in October, has already launched in the UK and Germany, and is expected to officially launch in the US in the coming weeks.
In addition to the latest version of Android, the Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65in Super AMOLED HD display, a 5-megapixel camera that promises "zero" shutter lag, and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. The phone also has 1GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, though the 32GB models of the phone have not yet been released in any market.
Despite not being officially available in Australia, a number of online retailers are already selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in Australia. Two of the most popular are MobiCity and Kogan, with MobiCity selling the phone for $769 and Kogan charging $789.
For full details on Telstra's Galaxy Nexus pricing, visit Telstra's dedicated Galaxy Nexus Web page.