Nokia announced the release of the highly anticipated N97 at a function held at the Turbine Hall in Newtown, Johannesburg yesterday. 

The N97, designed for Internet addicted consumers and touted as the most anticipated Nokia ever, was launched in conjunction with Nokia’s first 8 MP camera phone, the N86. Both are classic Nseries devices; stylish, jam-packed with features and offering a range of connectivity options. 

The N97 features an impressive sliding tilt 3.5\" resistive touch-screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. But the most impressive thing about the device is its customisable home screen. A bit like a PC desktop you can personalise an N97’s home screen with all sorts of widgets, including widgets that connect to popular social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook and news sources like Bloomberg. Other features include a 5 MP camera, a whopping 32GB of onboard memory and HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The N86, while not a touch-screen device, is Nokia’s flagship imaging phone. With wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 MP sensor the device is apparently comparable to a standalone digital camera. It also features a striking AMOLED 2.6\" QVGA display and 8GB of onboard flash memory. 

The N97 has a recommend retail price of R7999 and the N86 R6999.