Nokia N97 launches world wide this month

We’ve been telling you it was coming, and it seems it is just about here. Nokia’s flagship smartphone is on sale worldwide this month, although unbelievably, pricing and exact dates for some areas are still kind of fuzzy.

The N97 will be available in the UK unlocked and SIM-free starting June 19th for a price of about £500. After that, there will be a June 26th release to various carriers in the UK, with no set pricing yet, although it looks like it will come complete with a high tariff to rock consumers. US folks can at least pre-order it right now for about $455 (after the discounts are taken off).

So what does that price buy you? You, of course, have the QWERTY keyboard (slide out variety). Then there is the 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen. S60 5th Edition OS, GPS, WiFi, and HSPA. The low-powered CPU is a bit of a concern, but I guess we shall see if it affects performance to the point of making it not worth it.

The big selling point Nokia seems to be stressing is the fact the home screen is personalizable; you can customize it with a bunch of different widgets like Facebook, the Associated Press, local weather and more. It also is the first to ship with the Ovi Store.

I don’t know. Is it really going to make the splash in the consumer pool Nokia is hoping for? According to Jonas Geust, Nokia’s vice president responsible for the N series handsets, he makes it clear that they are expecting big things, and won’t accept less from the N97. “This should not be a niche product,” Geust said in a Bloomberg interview. “Clearly our ambition is to have a similar success to the N95 family.” And just a little FYI…the N95 sold more than 10 million units at the end of Q1 2009.

Is it worth that kind of pricetag? Or is it just a hyped up iPhone wanna-be? Would you buy it?

[Nokia N97] via mobilecrunch