Nokia N97 Announced

N96 buyers, consider yourselves screwed. Nokia’s just announced the N97, continuing the kitchen-sink tradition of the N9x series.

Perhaps taking a cue from the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Nokia has made their new flagship a side-slider, which reveals a QWERTY keyboard underneath. Standard high-end features like WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA, and a 5 megapixel camera are on-board, as well as the welcome integration of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. More info, specs, pics, and a video for those who keep reading.

You can expect the N97 to offer the usual Symbian S60 5th edition experience (to be found on the 5800 XpressMusic), but let’s see how it works with the 3.5” widescreen (640 x 360 pixel touchscreen) and 32GB of integrated memory (a microSD slot will accept up to 16GB of additional memory, according to the press release). Check out the company video for a virtual N97 in action:

And see this iPhone-N97 comparison via Robert Scoble (take care of your phone man!):

Perhaps the most important info—aside from the projected price of 550 euros and Q2 2009 release—is the battery capacity. A phone with so much functionality needs juice to run properly after all, and it’s probable Nokia will equip the N97 with the 5800’s 1320 mAh battery (here’s to hoping they’ll shoot for 1500 mAh). Expect updates on this as they become available.

(N97 product pics courtesy of Nokia)