Samsung launches new mobile devices in NZ

A collection of new Samsung mobile devices are going on sale in New Zealand in April, including the Galaxy S II and the Samsung-made Google Nexus S.


The Galaxy S II with its extremely high-res screen.

PC World went to the office of Samsung's New Zealand PR to get a hands-on look at the new devices, as well as the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1, also due out soon. (More on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 later, but for now you can oogle it, along with the other new devices, on our Flickr.)

All of the devices will be sold and carried by Vodafone.

The Nexus S will be the first smartphone in the country to run Android 2.3, also known as Gingerbread, on release.

The phone has a 1GHz processor, a 4-inch concave display to suit the shape of a person's face, and a 5MP camera which can be used to record video in 720p HD.

It features a clean install of Android with no manufacturer's software.

The Galaxy S II, which was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February, has a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S, is one of the best selling Android devices and helped to make Samsung the biggest mobile phone provider in the US.

Samsung also launched several lower-priced smartphones, including the Galaxy Ace, which will be priced at between $500-$600, and the mass market, 600MHz-powered Galaxy Mini. Samsung could not give us a price for the Mini, but we think it's likely to be similarly priced to the Huawei Ideos U8150, at $300-$400.

Specific release dates are yet to be announced by Vodafone.