(CNN) -- The Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone that arrived in Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday, is huge -- and not just because of its unusually large size. The new Android phone, which has been available in Britain for weeks, is the first to run Android 4.0, the latest version of the popular mobile operating system that also goes by the adorable name Ice Cream Sandwich. This is a very significant update to Android for smartphones. I've tested the UK version of the Galaxy Nexus for about a week. It looks and functions about the same as the one for Verizon, except that the U.S. model uses different cellular chips to accommodate Verizon's legacy infrastructure and its fourth-generation LTE data network. The U.S. version also does not run Google Wallet, the mobile payment system. The phone costs $300 with a two-year service contract.
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The Galaxy Nexus was born from a collaboration between Google and Samsung
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It's the first phone with the latest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich
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The U.S. version for Verizon Wireless does not work with Google Wallet
Perhaps the most significant change to the software is that @placeholder has done away with the hardware buttons below the screen.