As the official launch date of “Nokia Tube” is coming closer, things are getting even more exciting about the Nokia Tube aka Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone, the first S60 5th edition touch screen phone.

The launch date is scheduled for 2nd October in London as reported by Reuters but the phone is already up for preorder at US based online shopping site.

Nokia 5800 is the first touch screen phone ever but it is the first touch screen phone from Nokia. Lately but finally Nokia is about to enter the touch screen market. The phone is planned to be launched as a mid range priced phone consisting of the following specs:

• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), UMTS 2100, GSM/Edge, HSDPA connectivity
• Symbian S60 Taco 5 OS
• 3.2″ 640×360px, 16M touchscreen display
• 3.2mpx autofocus camera with dual LED flash and 30 FPS VGA recording
• Built-in A-GPS and WiFi
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.5mm headphone jack, TV-Out port
• 150MB of User memory
• microSDHC memory card slot (up to 16GB, 8GB memory card in a box)
• Dimensions: 111×52×15.5mm
• Weight: 109 grams

The above specifications are found at the mobilecityonline store where this phone is already up for preorder at an amazing price of 499.99$ USD.

The site claims its retail price at 799.99$ which is obviously wrong and quotes their price t be 499.99$ USD. The phone is listed as “Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Touchscreen Tube (unlocked)” on the site.

The ~500$ USD price is a bit higher for the mid range phone, though it is offering many cool features at an acceptable price. Lets hope these specification’s and price that are yet to be revealed on 2nd October 2008 remains the same as listed above.