Ever since Samsung and Google announced the pure Android Galaxy S4 Nexus Experience at Google I/O, there have been rumors that HTC was going to produce a similar stock Android HTC One. While HTC at first denied it, and then the device was supposedly to be only available in limited supply, Google’s Sundar Pichai confirmed yesterday at D11 that Google will in fact be selling a HTC One Nexus Experience device.
Pichai revealed that a Google edition HTC One would go on sale June 26 for $599 from the Google Play store. After the interview, HTC officially announced the device with a press release, giving us a few more details on the smartphone. The Nexus Experience HTC One is, of course, essentially a 32GB HTC One running stock Android 4.2.2. The device will support T-Mobile and AT&T, and include LTE connectivity as well. In addition to stock Android, the Google edition One has an unlockable bootloader, and oddly enough HTC has kept Beats Audio.
In addition to running the latest Android version, the HTC One Nexus Experience (which could use a shorter official name) is also supposed to be updated by Google and HTC in a timely manner, although we don’t know exactly what that means. Other than that, this new version of the HTC One is fairly straightforward. Just like the Google edition Galaxy S4, it combines the latest and most impressive of HTC’s hardware with Google’s pure Android software, an unlocked bootloader, and broad GSM compatibility.
Although the Samsung Galaxy S4 Nexus Experience didn’t have me very interested, HTC’s hardware is a different story. The HTC One’s design is quite impressive, not to mention the specifications are top of the line. I don’t know that I’m quite ready to give up my LG Nexus 4, but I have to say this certainly has me tempted. If only it weren’t quite so expensive.
[AllThingsD via Droid-Life] Thanks, Bill!
