Nokia takes pre-orders for N97

European and US consumers are closer to getting their hands on Nokia’s forthcoming flagship device, the N97, as the company started taking pre-orders for the gadget this week.

Packing a 3.5″ full touchscreen display and a slide out QWERTY keyboard, Nokia’s latest offering seeks to outdo the iPhone with an arsenal of hardware.

The N97 features 32GB of on board memory, which is further expandable with a 16GB microSD card. The camera is 5 megapixels, fitted with Carl Zeiss optics, while the display can handle 16:9 widescreen media and DVD quality video capture.

The internet and multimedia are the focus of the software package, which naturally features Nokia’s Ovi platform for content sharing, a full fledged music and media player including support for the Nokia Music Store and Adobe Flash player.

Connectivity is via HSDPA and wifi, with integrated A-GPS offering ‘social location’ (‘So-Lo’) functionality for social networking.

At the moment, the device is only available to pre-order in the US, Germany Italy, Spain and Sweden for a hefty €650.

Consumers in other territories will have to make do with a virtual tour available on the N97 preview site.