Nokia 5230 Nuron excites the T-Mobile nervous system

The US will wake up to a fine howdy do from Nokia’s 5230 Nuron now that it’s officially announced for T-Mobile. The device first introduced by Nokia back in August will be available to middle America “in the coming weeks” on T-Mobile’s 3G network. And unlike yesterday’s wee C5, Nuron features a reasonable 3.2-inch, 640 x 360 (nHD) touchscreen for your Ovi Store apps and free Ovi Maps with turn-by-turn navigation to dance upon. Hell, it even has an onscreen keyboard if you want to do something productive like tap out a few emails, enter a URL to surf the web, or update your social networking status(es). While no price or specific date was announced, we’ve seen rumors of a 17 March launch for $70 on contract, or $180 without. Just remember that Nuron runs S60 5th; and with the improved Symbian ^3 touchscreen UI just around the corner (and no clear upgrade path) you’d better really want this device to make the jump whenever it does launch.

Update: Nokia’s own Joe Gallo has confirmed that the Nuron will sell for $69.99 on a 2-year contract at T-Mob.