Nokia confirms N97 coming to UK 19 June

Nokia has announced it will begin shipping the hotly-anticipated N97 handset later this month to a whole plethora of countries.

Essentially, the Finns haven't really given much for us to go on, with no notion of actual dates and prices for the 3.5-inch touchscreen, fully QWERTY enabled handset. In fact, Nokia could have just published the headline and been done with it.

But thankfully the press office has helped us out, stating that the phone will be available from 19 June at the princely sum of £499 SIM free from Nokia stores.

And if you're interested in a contract, all the major operators bar O2 will be picking up the phone from 26 June.

Despite puzzlingly not naming the lucky regions, 75 of the worlds green lands (although it may not actually include Greenland) will get the new phone when it ships.

Tying up

There were rumours that the phone was already on sale in Germany, and this is likely Nokia's way of tying up its pending hard launch in one big announcement.

And in the spirit of press release fairness, here's some crucial information from Jonas Geust, Vice President and head of Nokia Nseries: "The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience.

"Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that's completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner."

See, you can't say TechRadar doesn't bring you all the important information from a press release.