Nokia launches N97 touchscreen smartphone with QWERTY keyboard

Nokia N97

Nokia N97

Nokia N97

Today in Barcelona at the Nokia World 2009 event, Nokia unveiled the next generation of its Nseries smartphones in the form of the touchscreen equipped N97. The S60 5th Edition equipped N97 is the first Nokia device to be announced that features both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, and is also the first Nokia handset to feature the sideways slider form factor made popular by HTC with its line of Windows Mobile smartphones.

The new N97 is the device that Nokia has chosen to use to feature its new suite of apps and services, such as Nokia Maps 3.0, which now features satellite imagery and topographical maps and works with the N97's built-in A-GPS unit. The N97 will also be aware of its user's "social location", sharing location information with approved friends and family as well as taking advantage of the built-in electronic compass for simple pedestrian navigation directions. The new apps should look quite impressive on the N97's 3.5", 640x360 pixel resistive touchscreen^(INFO) display. The home screen, which is completely customizable with live-data widgets, also takes advantage of the large display.

The sliding mechanism that reveals the QWERTY keyboard moves in an arc that leaves the display at a 35 degree angle to the keyboard, making for easy viewing both while entering text on the 3 row QWERTY keyboard or when watching 30fps video content. Inside the N97 is packed an impressive 32GB of built-in storage space that can be augmented with a microSD memory card of up to 16GB in size - for a possible total of 48GB of storage space.

More photos and specs on the next page.