Vodafone has announced it is to start selling the much anticipated Nexus One smartphone from Google from Friday.
The Android-based competitor to Apple’s iPhone will make its long-awaited European debut in Vodafone stores across the UK on April 30, although the device can be pre-ordered from today on the Vodafone website.
The release will mark the first time that Google’s first own-brand mobile has gone on sale both in-store and online.
Vodafone said it will offer the Nexus One for free to any customer willing to sign up to a two-year, £35 a month contract, which comes with 600 cross-network minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of mobile data usage per month.
Customers will be able to opt for a cheaper £25 a month two-year tariff but will have to pay £99 for the handset, or £59 for a £30 monthly tariff.
People who sign up for the Nexus One will also receive an extra gigabyte of free Wi-Fi access per month at premium BT Openzone hotspots across the UK.
The HTC-produced Nexus One runs the latest version of Google’s increasingly popular Android operating system (Android 2.1) and comes with a host of great features including a sharp 3.7-inch 480×800 pixel AMOLED display, a 5MP camera with auto focus and Geo-Tagging technology, free built-in voice activated GPS and multitouch web-browsing.
Users can also choose from more than 40,000 software applications to download to their phones via the Google Apps site.
