Historically picking function over form, Nokia continues to grapple with the true meaning of "sexy phone" -- but its latest two business-class smartphones are pretty much the closest thing we've seen to date. We've got the visuals all scooped up ahead of Espoo's official announcement, so head on over to Mobile for the lowdown!

Get this: the first North American carrier to offer up Nokia's 8GB N95 isn't AT&T. Heck, it's not even a US-based operator. No friends, it's Canada's own Rogers Wireless. Just as we had heard late last month, the N95 8GB has officially landed in the Great North, and starting on May 6th, consumers up that way will be able to secure one for a hefty $399.99 with a three-year activation on the Rogers Vision Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan. Don't weep too heavily, AT&T users -- your time should be coming soon.

Like detective work? Good, this one's for you. That's the supposed first picture of Nokia's Tube which we've enhanced a bit to see all the detail. According to Symbian-Freak, the device code-named "Tube" will be Nokia's first touch S60 device but will not be a flagship phone. Another higher spec'd phone will ship "shortly after." The display is said to be between 3- and 3.5-inches with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a camera (with another up front based on the picture) which they say is "way better" than the iPhone's but not on par with the existing N-series shooters. The phone is said to ride atop quad-band GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA radios with built-in Bluetooth, WiFi, uPnP support and a stylus. Something you'll apparently need judging by that skinny scroll bar. GPS? Yup, that too. No multi-touch on this model but it is said to provide haptic feedback in a package supposedly smaller (maybe a little bit wider) than the N73. We also notice an "XpressMedia" label on the phone which would indicate an affiliation with Nokia's XpressMusic class of media devices. You'll also notice that the icons have been slightly revised since we went hands on with the S60 Touch UI back in February. Real deal or not, it's a mystery worthy of your skills.

[Thanks Jose and to everyone who sent this in]

Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year -- if not longer, depending on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going -- to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they're taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96's strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone's socks off -- especially for a sticker price that'll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn't bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a "shovel"-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone's generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it's released later this year -- and hey, at least Nokia's got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now -- so we're keeping our chins up that this'll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.

[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]

We just got a call from our friendly local Nokia flagship store, and lo, it seems the mythical N95 8GB with HSDPA 850 / 1900 is now in stock. The all-black monster of Nokia's current Nseries lineup will run you a stiff $799 -- so get your credit card out, get your 3G on, and find out exactly what 8GB of music you want to carry with you.

Move along, nothing too new and thrilling here. We hunted down Nokia's touch demo and were completely un-thrilled by the whole package. Sure, it's still early days for the interface, but it's a case of same old same old as it's sporting the same UI, same OS, but now instead of using the d-pad, you're able to poke about with your finger. The demo was running on a small tablet in software only, no hardware yet, though, as we've already mentioned, devices should start arriving in the second half of the year. Hopefully Nokia will see the error -- in our opinion -- of its ways and drop some glitz -- feel free to pop on over and visit NVIDIA for some inspiration, Nokia -- down on this fairly glitz-free bit of wizardry. Hit the link to see the full gallery!

The Nokia N96 is here and while it certainly doesn't blow the doors off the current N95 in all its many varieties, it does refresh the form, add beauty, and the TV ain't all that bad to boot. What definitely stands out on the N96 is build quality, the material choices here are not as cheap as they were on its older siblings, it actually looks and feels like a high end device. We also were able to get some TV time in courtesy of some neighbor or another, we've enjoyed SlingPlayer Mobile on our devices for a while now, but there is just no comparing them, the DVB-H looks first rate. Peep the huge gallery over at Engadget Mobile.

Nokia confirmed yesterday that we'd be seeing touch-enabled S60 devices in the second half of the year, which instantly started speculation over what a form the UI might take, as we've seen some pretty wild concepts from the Finns in the past. Sadly, however, it looks like touch S60 is going be exactly what the name implies and not a speck more -- check out this demo video posted on the Nokia marketing blog. Sure, it's being demoed off a PC on a touch tablet and anything could change, but we'd say that Nokia's goal of keeping S60 essentially the same to avoid confusing consumers is a little misplaced -- this seems like a terrific opportunity to roll out a sexy new version of S60 with touch at the forefront and re-capture the interest of all those Symbian users, so simply glomming touch onto the existing UI seems like a cop-out. Let's hope things get a little swoopier when the first devices show up in a few months, eh? Video after the break.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Maybe it's just us, but the image pictured above sure looks a helluva lot sexier than the blurry depiction we saw of Samsung's G810 just last week. Along with just about everyone else in the mobile world, Samsung is making its striking do-it-all slider official at Mobile World Congress, and it's packin' quite the specs list. We're talking HSDPA, a 5-megapixel camera with face detection, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) and image stabilization, a 2.6-inch QVGA display, built-in GPS / WiFi, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and a 12.9-millimeter-thick frame. All that's for sure is a March 2008 release for those in Europe, but word on the street pegs it right around €580 ($840).

After Sony Ericsson's big move into Windows Mobile territory (with help from HTC) you can be forgiven for thinking that Nokia might follow suit. Nevertheless, Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, brought down the hammer on those rumors by saying, "We don't have plans to do Windows in mobile at the moment." Read into that time-boxed, English-as-a-second-language statement what you will. Better yet for S60 series fans, he committed to launching the S60 touch-screen platform in the second half of the year. More on the S60 Touch interface as the Mobile World Congress unfolds.

Rumored for a few weeks now as the N95's successor in waiting, the mighty N96 dual slider has gone all official on us at Mobile World Congress today. Though the phone it replaces is still a beast by any measure, the N96 pushes the envelope further by packing a solid 16GB of storage internally in addition to a microSD slot, something the N95 8GB lacks. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens carries over, but there are now two LEDs doing flash and video light duty. The 2.8 inch QVGA display will come in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should handle audio with aplomb. Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls when it's time to relax with a little N-Gage action. Unfortunately, the first version of the N96 (and the only version announced thus far) supports HSDPA only on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, but we imagine the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these stateside when it launches in the third quarter for €550 (about $797).

Update: The fine crew at NokNok have the first video of the N96 in action. Check it after the break.

The revamped Nseries lineup is coming fast and furious since the launch of the N81 and N82 late last year, and the latest candybar to get the updated industrial design is the N78, a midrange handset (by Nseries standards, anyway) with an integrated FM transmitter setting it apart from the crowd. Another notable feature is its picture geotagging capability, made possible by the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera paired with integrated AGPS. Other than that, it's pretty much your average S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 piece with Bluetooth and WiFi, though it's the very first Nseries model to be announced in both European and North American 3G versions simultaneously -- and if that's not progress, we don't know what is. Look for it to start stocking shelves next quarter for €350 (about $507).

No question about it, the N78 and the N96 are the heavies in Nokia's Mobile World Congress announcements, but there are a couple gems on the lower end, too -- if you can really call a navigation-ready handset and a 5 megapixel smartphone "lower end." Taking advantage of the company's newly-introduced Maps 2.0 app, the 6210 Navigator succeeds the 6110 by adding pedestrian navigation and an accelerometer to make it more responsive than AGPS alone. The 6220 classic, meanwhile, is an S60 candybar that slots in beneath the Nseries lineup, but still manages to clean up in the photography department with a Carl Zeiss lens, 5 megapixel sensor, and xenon flash. Check out the full rundown of the announcements over on Engadget Mobile!

Read - Nokia 6210 Navigator
Read - Nokia 6220 classic
Read - Nokia Maps 2.0

In the unlikeliest of unions since Julia and Lyle, we bring you some hot iPhone on N95 symbiotic action. Using the free JoikuSpot application released this morning, you can now turn any S60 smartphone into a WiFi hotspot. Yes, just like WMWifiRouter does for WinMo devices. Sure, the solution doesn't make much sense from locations with tethered Internet and you can't encrypt the http and https (only) traffic. But if you've ever been in a WiFi dead spot and needed to share access (think PSP gaming), this type of solution is pretty unbeatable. Assuming you have an unlimited data plan that is. Click the read link for the video.

[Via IntoMobile]

Read -- Video
Read -- JoikuSpot

It's not quite as technologically interesting as the N95 8GB for North America, but bright, pretty colors can certainly sell as many phones as a good chunk of internal ROM can. We spotted an in-your-face red N95 at the Nokia booth of Digital Experience this evening, and guess what? It's not custom painted, it's not some sort of funky special edition -- it's real, it's coming, and more importantly, it's coming here. Word on the street we'll see it before the first quarter's out for $599, implying that there's a little price drop for N95s of all colors in the cards for the near future.