The N Series range from Nokia just got a new flagship

Nokia raised the benchmark for its N series handsets yet again this morning with the grand unveiling of the new N97 handset. This isn't just another phone; it's "the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," says Jonas Geust, vice president of the N series range.

So what does it have that the other N series handsets haven't? For starters it has touchscreen. And you'll be pleased to learn that it's not a touchscreen-only model, you've got a full QWERTY keypad, hidden under a neat sliding / tilting screen action.

The N97 sports a 16:9 widescreen display which can be fully customised with links to your favourite social networking web sites and services. It comes with a massive 32GB of memory on board expandable to an extra 16GB using a MicroSD card.

The camera, like on the N 96, is a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss affair, but with the added bonus of being able to record in 16:9 format DVD quality. Your videos-on-the-go, uploaded on YouTube, will never have looked so real.

Nokia is also introducing a new concept called 'social location' - or So-Lo for short. This is a system, which taps into the integrated A-GPS, allowing you to automatically post your real-time location to friends, and with accompanying pictures or videos.

All of this sounds mighty impressive, but we can only hope that Nokia has upped the battery power quite considerably if we're expected to be able to take full advantage of all these goodies. The Finns claim that the handset will offer up to 320 minutes of talktime or 400 hours of standby time from a single charge, but we're guessing that both talk and standby times don't include constantly using the GPS and HSDPA.

The measure of the video playback time is perhaps more telling - you get four and half hours, but only if the phone is in offline mode.

The dimensions are roughly comparable to the N96 - its measures in at 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm (18.25 mm at the camera) and weighs 150 g. It's expected to go on sale in the first half of next year and will sell for around €550 (roughly £470).