Nokia N96 to finally hit UK

[The Feedster]

If you've grown tired of the sharp edges and bricky feel of your N95 and you live in the UK, worry no more; Nokia has finally come up with a release date.

From October 1st, the handset will be available in all good 3, T-Mobile, Phones 4U, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Vodafone.

No mention there of O2, perhaps the bubbly operator has too much on its plate with running out of iPhone 3G stock?

Or perhaps Nokia has said 'fine, have fun with you iPhone. You can't have our super-spangly, all-singing, all-dancing multimedia powerhouse…nyer nyer nyer.'

OK, that's less likely, but basically if you're on O2 you won't be able to get your hands on it.

Pandas

You can get the N96 early if you give money to some red pandas somewhere. (Well, donate it to them, rather than giving it to them. It's unlikely Nokia has set up an outlet with early stock and staffed it with black and white bears).

Until the Nokia 5800 / Tube hits, it's likely this will be the one to take the fight to Apple for the Finns, so keep a close eye on whether a master-of-all-trades handset can take on the might of the iPhone.

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