S4 google edition uk

Pocket-lint - Google has announced that it will be selling its own version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the latest Android handset from the Korean giant. We've seen the Samsung Galaxy S4, reviewed it , and loved it. It might not offer the design of the HTC One, or be leaps and bounds ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S3 in tech specs, but there's a lot to love about this handset.

This is the biggest difference: the SGS4 comes with Samsung's user interface layered over the top. It changes just about everything visually, as well as bringing a huge range of features to the device. That means everything will look like Android, behave like Android, just as Google intended. It will be clean and unfettered. Samsung isn't the worst when it comes to pushing out updates, but Google has said that the SGS4 Google Edition will get timely updates, just like the Google Nexus devices.

The freshly unveiled variant looks identical to the normal Galaxy S4, and has the same high-end hardware, including a 5-inch p display and a quad-core processor. Switch it on though, and you'll see the difference. The S4 is running 'stock', or 'vanilla' Android -- a pure distillation of Google's operating system, free of Samsung's extra features and TouchWiz interface tweaks.

That means you miss out on the shed-load of bespoke apps that Samsung has created for the S4, but also clears away a lot of clutter, and will bring the phone to the front of the queue when new versions of Android are released. One thing we're still not clear on is the name. Would you buy a no-frills S4? Should all Android phones have the option to strip out the extras? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or head for our Facebook wall. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read.

Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. Richard Trenholm.