The Samsung Galaxy Nexus was announced last month by Google and Samsung as the first phone to run the latest version of Android, 4.0 AKA Ice Cream Sandwich.

While we knew of the large (4.65″) high resolution (1280×720) Super AMOLED display, the 5MP camera, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, and most of the other details, Samsung stayed oddly quite about any information regarding the CPU and GPU, giving us nothing more than “1.2GHz dual-core CPU”.

Thanks to the Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, the beans have been spilled on the Galaxy Nexus’ CPU. The 1.2GHz dual-core CPU is indeed the Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 platform which also includes the PowerVR SGX540 GPU. TI claims that the PowerVR SGX540 has up to 2x better performance than the previous SGX530 GPU. OMAP 4460 also has support for 1080p encoding (capture) and decoding (playback) at 30 FPS. Samsung’s last Nexus phone, the Nexus S [review], didn’t even record 720p video. This time around, Samsung is taking full advantage of the platform’s capabilities.

You can see full official specifications at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus tracking page in our mobile device database.

Samsung UK has confirmed Galaxy Nexus availability for November 17th, but it seems that retailers aren’t so sure about that. Amazon UK has moved the shipping date for the Galaxy Nexus from the 17th of November back to December 2nd. Amazon UK currently lists the 16GB Samsung Galaxy Nexus unlocked for £519.99, which converts to a pricey $837 USD.

Most phones in the US aren’t bought off-contract, so when it comes to typical US pricing, Android Central has shown what appears to be a leaked Costco inventory screen which prices the Samsung Galaxy Nexus at $289. The phone is expected to be available across both AT&T and Verizon in HSPA+ and LTE flavors, respectively.

Samsung Galaxy Note

The curious case of the Samsung Galaxy Note, and it’s larger sibling, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, is one that we’ve been following closely. These two awesome devices were announced to great enthusiasm a few months back at IFA, but their official launch dates were left unspecified. Although I was put off by the Samsung Galaxy Note inititally, I must say that the idea of a pocketable device with accurate digital ink input is rather appealing, even if it wouldn’t work so well in one hand. The real issue, however, is how do we get our hands on one?

At the moment, the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7 go completely without mention on Samsung’s US site. Back during IFA, GottaBeMobile reported some dubious news from Samsung — that the company had “no plans” for a US launch of these devices. Some have interpreted this to mean that Samsung didn’t yet have specifics nailed down for the region, and others think Samsung is saying outright that they won’t be launching in the US. Whatever the case, it’s clear that they are taking a regional approach to distribution of the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

In the US, it doesn’t seem like the Samsung Galaxy Note, or the Galaxy Tab 7.7, will be launching — not immediately anyway. I’ve got a good feeling that Samsung knows that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 would be good in the US, after all, the original Galaxy Tab is considered to be one of the best selling Android tablets to date, and it was widely available in the US. As for the Galaxy Note, it would seem as though Samsung doesn’t want to push it into the region so soon after they made a big deal about the Galaxy S II which has recently become available across all major US carriers. There’s also the Apple patent cases to consider.

While we can’t be sure that it’s any indication of availability, a brief survey of some of Samsung’s regional sites shows that the device is at least sufficiently featured on their Germany, Finland, Netherlands, and Denmark sites.

For those of us in the US, we’ll need to rely on importers until Samsung decides that it’s time to bring the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7 to the US for an official launch.

Tech importer Expansys has both devices available for pre-order, but neither are likely to be cheap enough for anyone but extreme early-adopters and ultra-niche users. The Galaxy Note is currently listed by Expansys at a steep $945. Expansys has not yet announced a price for the Galaxy Tab 7.7, but is accepting pre-orders.

I’m hoping to see these prices come down some by the time they are actually shipping imported and unlocked units to US customers, but without official sales channels (and thus carrier subsidies), it’s going to be hard to push the prices down on these bits of top-end hardware.

A quick search for some other imports reveals cheaper prices, however, you should always do your research before buying an import!

• Mobile City Online – $699
• Cell Hut – $799

We’re really looking forward to Archos’ new G9 tablets, their inexpensive price and unique features are going make them a welcomed addition to the world of Honeycomb tablets.

As Charbax of ARMdevices.net shows us, the TI OMAP 4460 found in the G9 tablets will run at different speeds depending upon the capacity (and the price) of the tablet that you purchase.

When Archos first announced the Archos 80 G9 and the 101 G9, they were said to eventually be available in 8/16/250GB capacities, while other specs would remain the same. However, at IDF they are now showing that the 8GB variant of both models will run at 1GHz instead of 1.5GHz.

The lower capacity makes sense to bring down the price even further and offer additional choice to customers. What I don’t quite understand is the lower clock speed. As far as I can tell, the 8GB model of the 80 and 101 is still running the same CPU as the 16/250GB models. Feel free to correct me on this, but I can’t think of any additional fee that would be incurred to use a different clock speed on the CPU, so I have to wonder why they are lowering the speed on the 8GB variants.

My best theory is that Archos wants the more expensive models to be the most appealing, and give an additional incentive for going with one of the higher capacity units. If that’s the case, I can’t help but feel like they’re artificially giving users of the 8GB variants the shaft, though I’m hoping there is something less dubious behind it.

Archos confirmed US pricing for the 16GB variants of the 80 and 101 back when they were first announced; $270 and $349 respectively, and we should see the other models officially priced soon. Charbax has the official EU prices for all models here. The G9 80 and 101 will become available at the end of September, according to Archos.

Chippy is on the IDF show floor and we’ll see if he can get this question about the CPU speed answered for us.

Remember that Asus Eee Pad Transformer live session we were going to have next Friday? Amazon just sent me an update on the estimated delivery date.

“Asus EeePad Transformer TF101 10.1 inch Tablet PC (nVidia Tegra2 1GHz, 1Gb, 16Gb eMMC, WLAN, BT, Android 3.0) with docking station and keyboard Estimated arrival date: June 01 2011″

June!

It could be that Amazon UK are getting less stock than originaly intended and that some orders will go out, but not mine. If that’s the case though, why is the next shipment going to take 6 weeks?

I’ll be cancelling the order for the time being. If anyone sees the Transformer, with dock, available in the UK in the next week, let me know!

Posted from WordPress for Android with the Galaxy Tab

The AC100 is definitely getting closer. Amazon UK have a pre-order page up, Toshiba UK have product details up, Peter from Netbooknews in Japan says it will launch there next week and there’s now a German retailer showing the product. Although this is probably a UK QWERTY version being sold, it’s the availability figure that’s interesting. 2 weeks!

I’m quite excited about this one. We’ve got one on order and the more I read about it, the more excited I get. Yes, it won’t have any deep and meaningful productivity apps and yes, Android on a netbook style device will feel strange but with 8hrs battery life in a stylish sub-900gm package, a week or more standby power (and an estimated 2-3 days always-connected ) a high brightness display, dual-core ARM Cortex A9 and built-in 3G for 369 Euros (4-week delivery on the 3G version,) it’s something I just have to test out. It’s likely to have some of the issues of the similar Android-powered Airlife 100 [review]but I’m adamant that this concept has legs. As soon as someone brings out an always-on ‘smart’ netbook with the right applications, it will start a new chapter in laptop computing. No more shutdown!

If you’re in Europe, I’ve got good news for you.  The JooJoo tablet [News, specifications] is now available to pre  order.  No, don’t laugh because there’s an interesting twist here.  The price.

Ignore the  reviews  for a  minute and think about a 12” multitouch capacitive screen with BT, Wifi, SSD, Nvidia ion and the Atom1.6 CPU.  Then add (I assume its possible) Ubuntu, Moblin, X86 Android or some other flavor  of Linux  and  you’ve got  yourself  quite  a nice experimental pad  for just 359 Euros. If you like the though of developing or working with a home tablet, that’s not a bad price. With the right software it could make for  a really nice home theater component. Even XP should run on it if  you can squeeze it  into  the 4GB Flash. It’s no  iPad  and you’ll  have to contend with short battery life but it could be more fun than an Archos 9 which costs more, for less.

If  you’re in Germany, there’s even more ‘pad’ news for  you today because the WePad  just  went up for pre-order on Amazon.de [WePad info, specs] 449 Euros buys you the non 3G, 16Gb version and 569 adds another 16GB and the 3G module.

There’s no direct word on shipping dates for either of  the two devices but we had previously heard that the WePad won’t  be shipping until June/July. The JooJoo is in production although this push for European orders  could be to fund the next production run – a somewhat risky thought.

Is there something better  round the corner?  We think there might be. Despite good efforts by both companies concerned here we think that the current Intel Atom platform hasn’t got either the right  hardware or software build yet. That might change with  Moorestown and MeeGo but for the time being, we’re more interested in the ARM/Android platforms based on their  ground-up personal, touch and power-efficient architecture.