Android-powered Google Nexus S gets major price cut

The Google Nexus S has been reduced in price by £120 just in time for its Christmas launch in the UK, the Carphone Warehouse confirmed on Monday.

The handset — which is manufactured by Samsung — will now cost £429.95 SIM-free from the Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy instead of the previously advertised pre-order price of £549.95.

Customers that pre-ordered the device at the higher price will be issued with a refund if payment has already been taken or will be offered the handset at the lower price, a company spokesperson confirmed to ZDNet UK in a statement on Monday.

Contract-tied options have also received a price cut, dropping from free on qualifying contracts of £35 per month to free on qualifying contracts of £30 per month.

The Android 2.3-powered device — also known as Gingerbread — is now shipping to UK customers bringing with it a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 16GB internal storage, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and the usual Android suite of apps, such as mail, calendars and messaging.

Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse currently have an exclusivity deal on the handset but a company spokesperson would not confirm terms of the agreement. The phone is currently being offered on contract-subsidised deals on the Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2 networks.

The Nexus S is the second Google-branded handset to be launched by the search giant. The first, the Nexus One, was initially only available to purchase through Google's own online store but this was closed due to not meeting Google's expectations, according to Andy Rubin the vice president of engineering at Google.