Put this one firmly in the rumour catgeory folks, but according to Geek.com Samsung and Google have gotten together and are planning to release a Galaxy S4 running an AOSP version of Android, which will be launched during the keynote at IO, due to start at 2am tomorrow morning Australian Eastern time.
The rumour states that the special edition phone has been collaborated on by Samsung and Google, in order to address the growing number of users looking for the ‘stock’ Android experience on something other than a Nexus device. Something that the ROM community has been achieving through more un-official means via Cyanogen Mod, AOKP or other AOSP based ROMs in the last few years.
The Google Edition Galaxy S4 will apparently be made available starting in June using T-Mobile Bands, although whether this would be 3G or 4G LTE bands was not made clear. Pricing and other information regarding what radio bands would be available has not been supplied.
The existence of this rumour raises questions, a lot of questions : Soft vs Capacative buttons(and physical Home key), using the microSD Card slot, Google Apps and things such as the IR Port on top of the device and I’m sure there are more. I’m sure that Google and Samsung can hash out a lot of the answers to these questions and if it is indeed true then Galaxy S4 owners the world over will be glad to see the ROM ripped from the device mere minutes to hours after it is in developers hands.
Would you be interested in a Samsung Galaxy S4 running ‘Stock’ Android?
wow, this just got real!
They’re not even bothering to make up realistic rumours,… Try harder internet fakers,…
Now what do you have to say?
It might be a htc desire vs nexus 1 sort of deal.
That will be awesome as I like s4 screen better than nexus4. It should be able to get the updates straight from Google though.
If it exists, it won’t be a Nexus device.
This will never happen. If a none Nexus device use the android stock then they are no difference to the competitors beside the design.
Google makes the stock OS available to all phone manufacturers and they would prefer them to use it and roll out new OS updates quicker.
True that is what Google wants, but in reality the only thing to make every phone manufactures difference to each other is their own skin or modification of Android and the phone design.
So it will never happen huh?
Well that is my opinion, unfortunately, my opinion isn’t Google’s one. Still think that is wrong move. Without a features from Samsung, the phone is just like all other with cheap plastic build. And the price tag is not cheap at all.
That where you are wrong. There are a lot of people that want samsung hardware with stock android. Dont believe me then go onto XDA and look at the number of people flashing stock android and look online at the number of people that want a better nexus–galaxy s4 +stock android.
No, I don’t think you are wrong but don’t forget one thing the main consumer base is not tech savy. It is good for tech savy and people who love poor android with poor experience of it on the powerful hardware.
As normal user, I only find 1 good thing about the poor android is quicker update.
I think the beauty of this is that samsung has made everyone happy. both the standard user and the tech savy. Why is this good? cuz its the tech savvy one that recommend what to buy.
for me, its being able to download hybrid roms. Even when samsung hasn’t been providing updates i am sure this will make it possible for devs to pull together the ROM from the nexus S4 along with features from the older Samsung S4 rom or may be an S5 and create a hybrid… aka best of both worlds. latest android+samsung features
Sooo, I just bought a GT-i9505. I plan on putting aosp, aokp, or cm on it instantly. (Well maybe after a week). Don’t know if I believe this, but not sure if I exactly care… It would be great if Samsung started doing this to their phones. Release a phone, the official version will have TouchWiz, the GE edition will have aosp. XDA people will rejoice for options available.
The upgrading is still a problem we can’t get the update as early as Nexus.
Not gonna happen. I don’t believe this one for a second.
Agreed, a myriad of rumours have been spread everywhere already.
hmmm if only those rumours didnt come true. which they did
I’m prepared to eat my hat now.
EAT EAT EAT. 😀
This would be awesome, but I’d be pissed off at the same time considering I just purchased a Nexus 4 a couple of weeks ago.
Even if this is true it would cost at least $200 more than the Nexus 4
Yeah, agreed. It’d be worth it though.