Orange, the mobile phone operator and Internet provider, and France Telecom's baby since 2001, is going to offer to its customers the new and much awaited Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

All other major companies have managed to get their hands on exclusivity for the latest touchscreen phones as of late. For instance, if you want an iPhone, you have to go to O2. If you are a Blackberry Storm fan, then Vodafone is the place you need to be, while G1 is exclusively sold by T-Mobile. Now, Orange will be the exclusive retailer for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

It seems that Nokia's first full touchscreen device will be available to Orange customers next year, when it hits the UK. However, the exact date when this will happen, as well as the price for the phone, is yet unknown. What we do know regarding pricing is that it will likely be set somewhere around 200 pounds, SIM-free. Considering that the device will only be available from Orange, it's almost certain that the price with a subscription will be lower. Moreover, if we think that it will come with unlimited music downloads for the first year of ownership, it's not going to be a bad deal.

A quick recap of the specs would include, first and foremost, two features that Nokia presents as groundbreaking, the Media Bar and Contacts Bar. The Media Bar is a drop-down menu that offers users direct access to the music and entertainment they have stored on their phone, while also allowing them to connect to and browse the Internet. Supporting Flash, Nokia 5800 provides access to the entire web.

The phone also offers a graphic equalizer, 8GB of memory, support for all main digital music formats, a 3.5mm jack and built-in surround sound stereo speakers. Along with all these, Nokia featured the device with a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, allowing users to make the best of the 3.2 inch touchscreen that brings a 16 by 9 aspect ratio, and 30fps playback and recording.

The Contacts Bar allows users to highlight four favorite contacts on their home-screen, and also to track recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates.