Nokia officially announces Tube touchscreen mobile phone

Update: We've since had a play with the Tube's games and Nokia has confirmed N-Gage support for the Tube / 5800 is planned.

Nokia has finally officially revealed its Tube (also known as the 5800 XpressMusic) handset at this evening's Nokia Remix London event.

The exciting bit is that it's got a 3.2-inch touchscreen display. One that will happily handle 16 million colours and one which Nokia is claiming is the best colour screen you'll find on a mobile, but one that is of most interest to us because of the obvious gaming implications it brings to the table.

The Tube / 5800 also boasts other features such as a 3.2-megapixel camera, a TV-out function, a Flash-supporting browser, 8GB of removable memory, built-in suround speakers (the loudest and most powerful mobile phone speakers to date, apparently), a 3.5mm jack and other music-related shenanigans. Such as a plectrum. Yes, as in guitar.

It's a "total entertainment experience," says Nokia.

What it doesn't appear to include is the N-Gage functionality. Which will come as a surprise to the many who were hoping Nokia would take this opportunity to claw back some of the gaming landscape it's lost since iPhone arrived on the scene.

If you're still reading, pocket gamers, the 5800 XpressMusic is due out in the first quarter of next year.