Nokia's next flagship is E7?

While there is little doubt Nokia will showcase several new smartphones at next week's Nokia World expo, tipsters are backing an unannounced slider dubbed the E7 to take centre stage for the Finnish phone maker.

Reuters is reporting that the E7 will be named Nokia's flagship model for the end of 2010, sporting a touchscreen interface matched with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but did not confirm which of Nokia's new operating platforms the E7 will run on, the updated Symbian^3 or the Linux-based MeeGo platform, though tech blog Engadget suggests that it has seen evidence that it will be a Symbian device.

Nokia will use its Nokia World forum to show its N8 smartphone as well, a touchscreen Symbian device with a 12-megapixel camera. The N8 was first announced by Nokia back in April and is rumoured to launch in Europe on September 30, with an Australian launch expected in the weeks to follow.