Google has recently announced it will be selling Samsung’s Galaxy S4 running the stock Android operating system. While Google smartphones usually bear the Nexus name, it looks that this Galaxy S4 version will not be called the Google Nexus 5. I would assume that this would be done on purpose so as not to consume buyers. Apart from that, I don’t think that Samsung would permit the renaming of the Galaxy S4 to Google Nexus 5.
Some people might say that it is the hardware that makes the difference and after all the operating system running on Google’s version of the S4 version would be basically the same as Samsung’s version. However, the truth is that there are some clear advantages to running in stock Andorid form. Customized versions of Android usually contain a lot of useless applications that take precious internal memory space while consuming memory and processor resources that slow down the device as a result. Such useless applications are known by the term of “bloatware”. Stock Android, on the other hand, does not usually contain any bloatware and apart from having additional internal memory space for installing apps and storing use files, devices running the stock Android OS are usually more responsive.
However the main advantage of running a smartphone, phablet or tablet in stock Android is that the device can be usually upgraded as soon as new Android versions come out. This is usually not the case when running customized versions of Android. As a matter of fact, manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, HTC and others usually take months to issue operating systems updates.
This version of the Galaxy S4 will be sold at the Google Play Store for $649, starting from June 26th. This is some $300 to $350 more expensive than the price of the LG Nexus 4, which is still being sold at Google’s online store (the 8 GB version of LG Nexus 4 sells at $299 while the 16 GB version sells at $349).
