The Nexus S is a smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung and manufactured by Samsung Electronics. It was the first smartphone to use the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system, and the first Android device to support Near Field Communication (NFC) in both hardware and software.
The Nexus S was demonstrated by Google CEO Eric Schmidt on November 15, 2010 at the Web 2.0 Summit. Google officially announced the phone on their blog on December 6, 2010. The phone became available for purchase on December 16 in the US and on December 22 in the UK. The Super AMOLED version of the phone is the GT-I9020 and it is based on the Samsung Galaxy S hardware, the principal hardware differences being the absence of support for an SD card and the addition of a near field chip. The alternate SC-LCD (Super Clear LCD) version of the phone is the GT-I9023 which is meant for the European (non-UK) market. In May 2011 Sprint introduced its Nexus S in the US. Unlike the T-Mobile version, the Sprint Nexus runs on its WiMax 4G network. Also in March 2011 Vodafone released a white version of the phone on its web store in the UK.
In the United Kingdom, unlike the Nexus One, which was sold through Vodafone UK only, the Nexus S is sold at The Carphone Warehouse and is available on the Vodafone UK, O2 UK, T-Mobile UK, 3 and Orange UK networks. In India, Samsung has officially announced sale of the unlocked version with Super LCD screen i9023, which will support all GSM-based carriers throughout the country, In Canada the Nexus S became available at most carriers in April 2011 in two versions, one for Telus/Koodo, Bell/Solo, Rogers/Fido/Chat-r with 3G frequencies 850/1900/2100 MHz, and the other for Wind/Mobilicity/Vidéotron, using 3G frequences 900/1700/2100. In Australia the Nexus S became available in both black and white.
