Nokia have unveiled the N97, their flagship S60 smartphone.  Combining a 3.5-inch widescreen 16:9 aspect 640 x 360 touchscreen with a full QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, HSPA, Bluetooth and A-GPS, the N97 is Nokia’s vision of an always-connected world.  Based on S60, now updated to v.5 with new touch functionality, the smartphone includes a permanent social networking window on the homepage that can track your favorite social network site.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, an LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics, an accelerometer and a compass for use with the new Nokia Maps v.3 navigation software.  These maps are based on Navteq data and are dynamically updated with information shared by other users.  Custom widgets can be scattered across the home-screen, updating on the weather, share prices, news, friends and other information.

The N97’s browser can show streaming web video from sites such as YouTube.  Meanwhile there’s N-Gage mobile gaming functionality, and enough battery life for up to 37 hours of music and 4.5 hours of video.  Built-in storage is 32GB, with a microSD slot for an extra 16GB. 

PhoneScoop and Robert Scoble have already spent some time with the handset prototypes; more details here.  The N97 will go on sale in Europe and Asia first, in the first half of 2009.  It’ll be priced at €550 ($695) unsubsidized.  A US release is planned after that, though no specific dates have been given.  More details here.