The Nokia N97 is no big secret. With prototype units already circulated in plenty of places worldwide, and feature/specification list that’s been known since late last year, the only question was when this phone would actually be launched.

If what dropped into my mailbox (see above) is anything to go by, the first week of June sounds about right, smack inside the claims by top Nokia execs that the N97 would arrive sometime in the first half of 2009. While this looks to be the launch date in the region, i’m not too sure if the same date applies to the rest of the world. Still, that’s something to look out for in the coming week or two.

The web’s all abuzz with Nokia’s announcement of their new flagship mobile device, the Nokia N97, at the 2008 chapter of Nokia World, which is currently ongoing in Barcelona.

Digging through the live feed, press release and other information available, here are some of the more standout specifications that Nokia crams into the N97:

• 32GB of on-board storage; a microSD slot enables even more. 16GB cards are already shipping, and we should be seeing 32GB cards in a matter of months.
• 16:9 touchscreen display, with 640×360 pixel resolution, 3.5″ in size; the screen on the N97 is a smidge larger than on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic for example, but has the same resolution and aspect ratio.
• QWERTY keyboard; this combined with the onscreen virtual keyboard should make typing a cinch in just about any situation. Finally, blogging on the go will be the seamless, hassle free process that every mobile blogger dreams about.

Other features include 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, DVD-quality (really?) video capture, HSDPA, GPS and WLAN.

What immediately comes to mind when looking at the N97 is that is bears an uncanny resemblance to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, and in some ways, vaguely to the HTC TyTN II. If the stock photos are anything to go by, it’s also apparent that Nokia’s taken more than a couple of design cues from existing devices in their lineup. As it is, I see hints of the Nokia N79 candybar phone as well as the feeling that the N97 could also very well pass as one of the Eseries business phone lineup.

That said however, after taking a step back and looking at some of the devices Nokia’s announced in previous months, it’s overwhelmingly clear that the Nokia N97 stands a class above all the rest.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was innovative in its own right, but appeared to be targeted at the younger crowd easily swayed by shiny plastic and the promise of an all-you-can-listen music buffet. The Nokia N85 showed promise with it’s OLED screen, but didn’t bring anything new or groundbreaking to the table. The same went for the Nokia N96, which to this day, I still look at as being the legitimate love-child of both the Nokia N95 and the Nokia N81. From the past couple of product launches, it seemed that Nokia was running out of ideas, resorting to rehashing old ideas with newer, shinier plastic and the promise of a unified set of online services around the Ovi label. I mean, what else can you do with more memory and throwing a touchscreen on the phone?

With the Nokia N97, the answer seems to be “a heck of a whole lot more”. Eseries aside, the Nokia N97 is quite probably most jaw-droppingly gorgeous mobile device i’ve seen yet (even if more than a few design cues came from the Xperia X1), and with a feature set that certainly befits its status as a flagship device. This device certainly more than makes up for the continuous disappointments that were launched during the past couple of months.

Of course, not everything is going to be spit-shiny and awesome, as from the stock photos one can already see that users will have to live with some limitations. Sure, a QWERTY keypad helps loads when typing out messages, emails, blog posts etc, but a 3-row keypad means that individual keys will have to serve multiple functions. Hitting that shift and/or function key isn’t going to give the speed-typers a reason to love the N97’s keypad. Also, while the 16:9 touchscreen is definitely sweet, it also doesn’t support multi-touch. Serial photo-pinchers might have to look elsewhere to get their fix.

That said, the Nokia 97 is more than likely going to be more of a hit than a miss. Only problem now is we’ll have to wait till Q2 2009 for the Nokia N97 to ship. That’s a mighty long way away. Hopefully, Nokia can speed things up a little, because my Nokia N82’s getting a little long in the tooth already, and an upgrade’s long overdue.

Below’s a video demo introducing the Nokia N97 (anyone know what song they’re using for the background music? It’s awesome!).

Read the full press release for the Nokia N97 here.