Grab a Nokia N8 online for September 23, earlier than thought

Those who pre-ordered the Nokia N8 online may have it in their hands before the end of September, and not October as we previously thought.

A reader of the website NokNok spotted that Nokia Online has been buying up Google ad words which say the Nokia N8 will be be ready for dispatch on September 23, "one week before anyone else".

That would be music to the ears of Nokia fans eagerly awaiting this phone, which we seem to have been waiting an age for and the Finnish company hope could change its fortunes.

It has a 3.5-inch AMOLED touch screen with an impressive-sounding 12-megapixel camera. The cameras has Carl Zeiss optics, a Xenon flash and facial recognition software. It will also be able to shoot HD, 720p video, and it includes an HDMI socket so you can plug it into a TV.

But the thing which could separate this from Nokia's previous efforts is that it has the Symbian 3 OS, a significant upgrade that means the phone has multi-touch support, among other things.

The launch of the N8 is very important to Nokia, which has rapidly been losing market share to Apple, Google Android and RIM. 

We've also got the potential Christmas release of the N9, which looks like the most exciting device of all. We like the look of the device, but what really makes us salivate is the potential of a MeeGo OS running on the phone.

But before then, you've got the N8 to look forward to, and now earlier than you might have thought.