While it may sound like a character from an upcoming Transformers movie, the Nexus Prime – apparently to be sold as the Galaxy Nexus – is set to be the first smartphone running the next version of the Android OS, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich, and the new Android flagship phone.  It will be announced late this evening (U.S. time) in Hong Kong.

Like the other Nexus-series handsets, the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung will be a pure-Android experience without third-party overlays, UI tweaks, or carrier tampering. 

In addition to Android OS 4.0, the 4.7-ounce Nexus Prime / Galaxy Nexus is expected to feature a dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP4460 CPU, a 4.6-inch AMOLED 720p HD touchscreen display with curved glass and a high DPI, 1GB of RAM, either 16 or 32GB of onboard storage, Bluetooth 3.0, an 8MP camera with 1080p video capture, a front-facing camera, and a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU.  LTE is also widely expected to be part of the wireless array, and NFC technology for Google Wallet is also thought to be included.

The Nexus Galaxy is believed to be headed to Verizon Wireless in November.

Source: Gigaom