Google Play editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 & the HTC One are now available on Google Play

Google have announced the availability of the Google Play Editions of the flagship devices of Samsung and HTC.

Both phones are unlocked and you can use them with whatever carrier you choose.

One of the biggest advantages of the Google Play Editions of these phones than the normal variants is they will be running on the stock Android 4.2 out of the box. No TouchWiz or Sense.

Another advantage is that the devices will receive device updates directly from Google. So when they release Android 4.3, these devices will be amongst the first to receive it.

Features of the Google Play edition S4:

• 5″ Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080.
• Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 CPU
• A 13 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera
• 16 GB internal storage and 2 GB RAM.

Features of the Google Play edition HTC One:

• 4.7″ Super LCD3 display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080.
• Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 CPU
• A HTC UltraPixel Camera at the rear and a 2.1 MP front camera.
• 32 GB internal storage and 2 GB RAM

Here are the screenshots of the phones’ play store pages.

Pricing and availability:

The phones have been launched only in the U.S for now.

You can buy the Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4  from this link for $649 and the Google Play Edition of the HTC One from this link for $599.

Note: The price listed does not include tax and shipping. But for now shipping is free.

Whether these phones will affect the sales of the Google Nexus 4, is something that we will have to wait and see.