Nokia N97 UK Release Date Leaked By Play.Com? [Nokia Tight-Lipped]

Whilst, officially, the Nokia N97 has not been given an exact launch date in the UK – Nokia merely suggesting that it would be released sometime in the first half of ’09 – it would seem that, if the N97 product page that’s appeared on Play.com is to be believed, those waiting for the much anticipated touchscreen N97 won’t have much longer to wait.

Whether by accident or design, Play.com have listed the Nokia N97 as ‘Due for release on 31/03/2009’ with the handset having already been listed as available for pre-order for just shy of £480 (unlocked) – though, as you’d expect, Nokia have neither confirmed or denied that their N97 will indeed begin shipping to UK consumers on the date specified by Play.

For those unacquainted with the GPS/HSDPA Nokia N97, the device comes with a 3.5” 16:9 aspect ratio 640 x 360 resolution TFT touchscreen display supporting handwriting recognition, integrated accelerometer sensor (allowing the screen to auto rotate according to its orientation), a slider-style QWERTY keyboard, comes with 32BG of integrated storage capacity (expandable by a further 16GB courtesy of a microSD memory card), a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS functionality paired with Nokia Maps.

Of course, it could transpire that Play.com have merely jumped the gun a little in terms of the purported UK release date of the N97 but, until Nokia chimes in with a denial, we wouldn’t bet against it as it certainly slots neatly into Nokia’s otherwise wholly vague comments concerning its availability.