Nokia has confirmed that the its new flagship smartphone, the Nokia N97, will officially begin selling in the UK on 19th June. The 3.5-inch touchscreen device with full QWERTY keyboard makes the most of the Symbian S60 5th Edition operating system and will cost £499 (inc. VAT) SIM free from Nokia Online.

There has been much speculation as to when the Nokia N97 would officially ship but Nokia has confirmed that it will ship in June. Yes, Nokia said back in February that it planned to launch the Nokia N97 in June but to actually ship is quite another thing.

The Nokia N97 will officially go on sale at the Regent Street Nokia store on 19th June.

It will then be available from 3, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U, the following week from the 26th June.

The Nokia N97 will be the first Nokia smartphone to come with a fully-featured Homescreen that the user can personalise in any way they see fit. Nokia has worked on a host of new widgets, and will be releasing more in the coming months, that allow you to tap directly into the things you want to use. So, these widgets include social networking like Facebook and Hi5, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information.

Naturally, any new content, and Nokia is promising a whole host of new features and fucntionality to roll out in the second half of the year, will be on offer straight from the Ovi Store. The Nokia N97 will be the first official device to ship with Ovi Store as standard.

So, is it time to get excited about what is looking like the most hotly tipped smartphone of the summer? Let us know in the Comments below.

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