Nokia has officially whipped the velvet cloth off the 5800 XpressMusic phone (may The Tube R.I.P)!

We’ve seen it in the flesh and will be posting a high-def video of it in action within moments, along with a gallery of close-up shots of Nokia’s first touchscreen titan.

All rumours have been smacked in the chops wet-fish style, and now we’re swimming in a refreshing pool of official specifications. Get the full lowdown on the 5800’s vital statistics right here…

Some of the speculation was indeed true, with the 5800 XpressMusic’s screen stretching the tape measure to 3.2-inches. Plus it’s packing a proper high res 16:9 widescreen (640 x360) that plays video back at 30fps, and looks the business in bright sunlight and darker conditions. It feels good in the palm too, slimmer than the N95 8GB, with feedback haptics when you prod the screen with your pinky.

It runs of Nokia’s new S60 5th Edition platform, that’s been modified fully for touch. The interface is smart too, with slick drop-down menus mixed with familiar icon set-up, so navigating is a cinch.

There an 8GB microSD card included (it’ll swallow up to 16GB), plus it’s fitted with a 3.5mm headphone jack to take any cans you care to umbilically link to the mothership mobile. There’s stereo speakers that sound bizarrely clear for a mobile device. Here’s hoping the kids on the back of the bus start using this instead of their usual buzzy blowers! Plus, if you want to share your playlists with a friend, there’s a one-touch option that enables you to SMS them, enabling your mate to download the tracks they don’t own direct from the Nokia Music Store on their device.

An accelerometer has smuggled itself into the 5800, meaning the screen auto-rotates when you flip it, and it’s being used for gaming – Global Race is pre-loaded and is geared up for tilt-to-steer action (check out our video to see it in action – it’s being uploaded as I type, so refresh the homepage and get watching!).

Camera-wise it’s packing a 3.2-megapixel shooter with a killer Carl Zeiss lens, and also records VGA video at 25fps. We haven’t had a chance to rattle off any pics yet or film anything with it, but we’ll let you know how it performs in the picture stakes shortly.

It’s seriously Internet savvy too, with full Flash support, so no pages are off limits. Unless you’re into some freaky stuff of course, and in that case, behave! Plus there’s built-in GPS with Nokia Maps.

The 5800 is going to launch in the UK early next year, with end of January or beginning of February touted as the most likely time when we’ll see it hit our shores. And despite it’s serious feature set, the most complete we’ve yet witnessed in a music device, the price tag isn’t smartphone steep – when it launches it’d set you back 279 Euros before all the usual taxes and subsidies nonsense. But chances are it’ll launch for next to nothing on contract, as this is a seriously mainstream music device from Nokia and the big N clearly is keen to get it plying it’s rhythmic trade in a broad population of pockets come early 2009.

What do you reckon to it? Jot down your thoughts in the comments section below…