Nokia has unveiled its new smartphone, the N97.

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has unveiled its new flagship smartphone – the N97 – competing with the likes of the Apple iPhone 3G and the new Blackberry Storm.

Announcing the model at Nokia World 2008 in Barcelona, the company termed the N97 the “world’s most advanced mobile computer”.

The new handset offers a 3.5 inch touchscreen, full Qwerty keyboard, a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

It supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. With full support for the Nokia Music Store, it has a continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. 

The N97 will be available in six months time, but faces tough competition in the form of the Apple iPhone 3G, the Blackberry Storm, Sony Ericsson X1 and the Samsung Omnia.

Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries, said: “From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence.

“Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet.”

The Nokia N97 also introduces the concept of “social location”. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. It makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their “social location” as well as related pictures or videos.

It has been priced at €550 which equates to £467 at current conversion rates and is expected to ship around July. For more information, visit: http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld ^[1]