As anticipated by many smartphone enthusiasts, the Google edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One are now available directly from the Google Play store.
Both the handset were already available on eBay, but at a premium price. Now customers can buy the handsets directly from Google without paying an extra cent.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One will run completely on stock version of Android that will be updated directly by Google, just like the company updates its Nexus devices. Customers won't even find HTC's Sense or Samsung's TouchWiz user interfaces on the smartphones, giving users a totally different experience.
The recently launched Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One are undoubtedly two of the most popular Android smartphones around. The Galaxy S4 reached over 10 million users and the HTC One found over five million owners just within 30 days of their release.
The handsets pack in top-end specifications needed in a high-end smartphone. The Galaxy S4 come running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update but the HTC One runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. However, some international variants of HTC One have started getting Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean software update.
The Google edition of the HTC One will also come running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean from out of the box.
The HTC One has a price tag of $599 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 is priced at $649. Both the handsets don't require any contract and are sold as unlocked. However, the handsets will work only on AT&T and T-Mobile LTE networks.
The Galaxy S4 will come with 16GB of on-board storage with the option to expand further using a microSD card, while the HTC One has 32GB of internal storage without the option to expand the memory. The rest of the hardware specifications are the same when compared to the carrier versions of the handset.
