Before the emergence of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as the current Google flagship device, there was the Samsung Google Nexus S, the favorite among the smartphone-buying population as the device that will give them a pure Vanilla stock Android experience. This was the case back then because the handset was a Google developer device and is always first in line whenever Google decides to release updates.
And with Google recently announcing Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of its mobile operating system, users of the handset are already asking if their device will get the update that will give them a taste of Jelly Bean in the near future. Looking back, we already saw the latest Android version showcased on the Google Nexus 7 tablet while the current Google flagship, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, has already been updated to Jelly Bean.
As for the Samsung Google Nexus S, there are reports that the handset will also get updated to Jelly Bean. What’s even more exciting is word on the street is that the smartphone will get the update in the next couple of days if the announcement of Vodafone Australia is to be believed. According to the Aussie carrier, Google is scheduled to start the Jelly Bean rollout for the Google Nexus S by 1:00 pm AEST on July 19. However, that translates to 11:00 pm EST of July 18 in our side of the world.
The announcement of SFR France about the Jelly Bean update for the Google Nexus S also ties in nicely with what Vodafone has to say about the update. The French carrier confirmed that JB will be deployed on July 18. With two carriers from two different continents saying the same thing, things could only be looking up for the once Google flagship device. However, the rollout most likely will initially be made available only to the GSM version of the handset so Sprint users will have to wait a little longer.
However, with this kind of announcement coming from carriers, we are quick to caution everyone to take everything with a grain of salt. Wireless providers in the past have been known to release “slightly” incorrect information so I will believe once I see the notification come up on my Google Nexus S.
As for the handset, the Google Nexus S is no longer a spring chicken that’s for sure. It has a Hummingbird chipset powering its operation while a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 512 MB of RAM work together to come up with the computing muscle required by the handset. The storage space of the device is pegged at 16GB although there is no option to have this expanded. Display-wise, the Google Nexus S packs a 4.0-inch SuperAMOLED panel with a 480 x 800 resolution while its camera department features a rear-facing 5MP shooter and a front-facing VGA video call camera.
