Nokia 5800 Tube mobile gets UK release date
Touchscreen handset going on sale on January 23rd
Nokia has announced that its first touchscreen handset, the 5800 XpressMusic (or 'Tube' as it's known) will go on sale in the UK on Friday January 23rd.
It'll cost £249 SIM-free, and will go on sale at 10am that day in Nokia's Regent Street and Heathrow Terminal 5 stores, as well as via the company's online shop.
If you're anxious to reserve one, you can pre-order it today. It'll then go on sale in other retailers in the UK on January 30th, including Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile UK, Virgin Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U.
As we've reported before, the 3.2-inch touchscreen handset has a virtual QWERTY keyboard, tactile feedback, surround sound speakers and a nifty user interface.
From a gaming perspective, it's got an accelerometer inside and will support motion-sensing games, although Nokia hasn't confirmed yet whether it'll be an N-Gage capable handset. It seems like it won't be at launch, though.
However, the handset has been criticised by some mobile game developers for its technical capabilities.
For example, at the Nokia Games Summit last year, EA Mobile's Chris Gibbs highlighted one flaw: "Think about the Tube, really large screen but no hardware acceleration, so it's not the most game-friendly device in the world."
To watch our video of the 5800's gaming capabilities in action, click here.
