Nokia N8 available almost everywhere from 22 October

The Nokia N8 smart phone will be available to buy -- pretty much everywhere -- from 22 October.

Vodafone was joined today by O2, Orange, T-Mobile, 3 and Virgin Mobile in making the the new Symbian 3 phone available on contract. Retailers rolling out the red carpet for it include Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u and Tesco. If you're especially keen, you can take delivery of the N8 earlier -- dispatching on 14 October -- if you choose to buy it through the Nokia online shop.

The Nokia shop is selling the N8 SIM-free for £429, which is an astonishing £100 more than Tesco. Nokia also has the phone on contract from £30 a month (on O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone), but as we revealed yesterday, you can find it cheaper than that. Phones4u has £25 per month deals advertised with Orange and Vodafone SIMs.

As well as running the new Symbian 3 OS, the Nokia N8 has a 12-megapixel camera with a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen. It has the usual Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and HSPA connectivity, as well as an HDMI port and the ability to film HD-quality video. It comes in black, blue, green, grey, orange and silver, although some retailers have exclusives on certain colours.

We gave the N8 a three-star review. We love the look, the touchscreen and the camera, but we're not so keen on the frustrating and confusing Symbian 3 software, and there aren't enough apps available. You've given it a user rating of five stars, showing how much love you still have for Nokia.

By 22 October, a number of new phones we've been expecting to see for ages will have come out. With Android there's the much-anticipated HTC Desire HD and Z, while Windows Phone 7 handsets may be in stores as soon as 21 October. When the month is out you'll have a helluva lot of choice if you're looking for a high-end smart phone. Which one will you go for?