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Google today unwrapped the veils on its own-brand smartphone called the Nexus One at an invitation-only event held at Google’s Mountain View HQ.

The Nexus One is a slim, touchscreen phone built in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer HTC and runs Google’s Android operating system.

It will be sold via Google’s website and initially be available on T-mobile in America followed by Vodafone in Europe and Verizon in the US.

Direct from Google it will cost $529 (£331) and on contract with T-Mobile $179 (£112). Google said the phone would ship from launch day.

Handset Features

• 3.7 inch touchscreen
• 1GHz snapdragon processor
• 5 Megapixel camera with LED flash
• GPS and compass
• Accelerometer
• Noise cancellation technology
• Voice recognition can be used with all applications
• Light sensor changes screen brightness to conserve power
• 512MB Flash memory with SD card slot (expandable to 32GB)

Google has set up its own phone portal through which people can get a handset tied to one of several mobile operators or untethered direct from the search firm.

Google also announced on 5 January a plan to launch “pay to call” adverts that would appear on mobile phones. These would work in a similar way to the “pay to click” adverts that populate many websites and which form a significant chunk of Google’s revenue.