Samsung Galaxy Nexus to be released Dec. 15 for $299

The hotly-anticipated phone with the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS to be unleashed...tomorrow

Get ready people, because the long national nightmare is almost over. Verizon will finally release the Samsung Galaxy Nexus tomorrow Dec. 15, as per their press release, setting all mobile-loving hearts aflutter with glee. The phone will be on sale for $299, with the purchase of a two-year plan.

The Galaxy Nexus is the latest model in the Galaxy series and the most hotly-anticipated phone to be released in some time. Reviews have been adoring, and the tech-hungry masses have been beside themselves with anticipation.

The new Galaxy model will have a 4.65-inch screen, with 1280 by 720 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video. It will have a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core processor, and 1 gigabyte of RAM. The phone will support 4G LTE networks, but Google is going to offer an HPSA+, which will work better with T-Mobile and AT&T. The new 4G system boasts download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps.

Oh, and the new Galaxy Nexus will also be the first phone to carry Ice Cream Sandwich, Android's new mobile OS. So there's that, if anyone's interested.

And as low as the $299 price tag may be, November saw the posting of a mysterious Verizon advertisement at various sites around the Internet, claiming the Galaxy Nexus would be sold at the price of $199 at some point. The ad seems to have been erroneously posted, as the promotion for the $199 pre-order didn't actually work.

Would it be too much to ask that Verizon be gripped by the Spirit of Christmas, and repost those ads but for real this time?

The new Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS is said to feature a redesigned UI, the Android Beam allowing users to share web pages by tapping two compatible phones, Face Unlock using new facial recognition tech to unlock the phone, and cloud services.

Samsung reported Tuesday having shipped 300 million mobile devices to retailers in 2011, their hughest number ever, which puts them ahead of Apple for the best-selling mobile device manufacturer in the world. The latest Apple model, the iPhone 4S, currently costs $199.