Mark over at The Nokia Blog has gotten word from a major distributor that the NAM variant of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is expected to be available on or around February 26th. The NAM variant of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the same as the currently available Euro variant, except that the 3G frequencies on board are 850/1900MHz, which is used by AT&T in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada.
Pricing is supposedly set at US$399, which is ridiculous, considering that the Nokia Flagship stores in both Chicago and New York are selling the Euro variant for US$350, and have been for over a month. Nokia has continually tried to convince the U.S. that it cares about this market, but waiting 3 months to release the NAM variant, and then charging more for it are not convincing me in the slightest. **Update** Mark has clarified that the US$399 price is only the ‘suggested retail price’. While he hasn’t revealed the actual wholesale price that retailers such as Amazon or Newegg will pay, Mark believes the ‘street price’ will be closer to $360, which isn’t bad.
In any case, if you’re anxious to touch your S60-powered smartphone, but need that 3G goodness, you apparently don’t have long to wait.
