When it comes to Nexus devices, AT&T appears to be third on the pecking order. Samsung announced on Thursday that the Google Nexus S phone will launch on AT&T on July 24 and is available for pre-order now via Best Buy. That's six months after the debut of an unlocked version through Best Buy, one for T-Mobile in December, and another for Sprint in May.
The AT&T device, also sold through Best Buy, costs $99 with a two-year contract; coincidentally Sprint halved the price of the Nexus S to $99 just last week.
During this time the specs haven't changed. The slab-style smartphone ships with Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, and features a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, 1-GHz processor for showing 3D graphics, VGA front-facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras, and support for near-field communication (NFC) even though AT&T is not a member of Google Wallet, Google's mobile payment ecosystem (but Sprint is). And being a "pure" Android experience, it also features the most up-to-date Google mobile apps, including Google Voice.
The smartphone also features the latest Google mobile apps, including Google Earth, Google Maps with Navigation, Google Talk with video chat, Google Voice and Voice Actions, as well as access to more than 250,000 apps in Android Market.
In its reviews, PCMag gave the Nexus S on T-Mobile four out of five stars ("average consumers can find even-better high-end smartphones," Segan said) and the Nexus S 4G on Sprint three (it "lacks state-of-the-art specs, and its reception problems are fatal," he found). It earned high praise from PCMag columnist John Dvorak. Check on the slideshow below for more angles.