Google announces Nexus 5, priced starting Rs 28,999 in India

After months of leaks and rumours, Google has officially announced its next flagship Android smartphone, the Nexus 5. The company also took curtains off the Android 4.4, aka KitKat, the latest version of its mobile operating system.

Google has yet again worked with LG to come up with its next Android smartphone.The Nexus 5 sports a plastic shell with a silky textured finish. This smartphone features a 4.95 inch full HD Gorilla Glass 3 display with 445 ppi. It has Qualcomm's quad-core 800 chipset, clocked at 2.3 GHz and is paired with 2GB of RAM.

Connectivity options onboard include Dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB. The Nexus 5 has got an 8MP rear camera with optical image stabilization and a 1.3MP front facing camera. With 2300 mAh battery, the Nexus 5 can offer up to 17 hours of talktime. The Nexus 5 will be available in two storage capacities - 16GB and 32GB.

While Google's latest device goes on sale in many countries on Friday, it has been listed on the Play Store India as well and will be launched in the country soon.

Available in black and white, the 16GB Nexus 5 has been priced for Rs 28,999 whereas the 32GB can be purchased for Rs 32,999. At this price, the Nexus 5 will compete against the best selling flagship Android smartphones - the Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z1, HTC One, etc - which are falling in and around Rs 40,000 price segment.

Google has also launched the much talked about Android v4.4, which have been optimized low cost tablets and smartphones. The new version of the operating system is only available on Nexus 5 at the moment. In the coming weeks, Google plans to make the OS available to the Nexus hardware (Nexus 7, Nexus 10, Nexus 4) along the Google Play version of Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.