Nokia, realizing its 2008, has finally entered the world of touchscreen cellphones with its XpressMusic 5800. The phone, which was announced a short while ago in London, is the company’s first touchscreen cellphone, and one that runs on the company’s S60 software.

It’s yet another would-be iPhone killer, as you might guess. Judging by what info has been released, it doesn’t look half-bad. But against Apple, half-bad might not be enough.

But first, the bullet point facts, the biggest one being its haptic touchscreen display. All that means is that as you touch the screen the phone itself vibrates a tiny bit, just to let you know you’ve pressed a button, so to speak. (There’s a full QWERTY keyboard if you’re so inclined, however.) Besides the fancy new display, the phone incorporates built-in Wi-Fi, a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, and a microSD card slot. You’ll be using that, Nokia hopes, for music.

As the name implies, the phone will be marketed as a music phone, which is sort of an admission on Nokia’s part that it’s not exactly going after Apple and the iPhone just yet; best to test the market first and see how people react before going balls to the wall against Apple, right? As such, it’s the first phone that works with Nokia’s upcoming Comes with Music service. Comes with Music is an iTunes-like service that lets you download music over the air to listen to on your phone.

It’s hard to view the 5800 as anything other than Nokia dipping its toes in the water, testing how people will react to a non-iPhone sorta-like-an-iPhone-phone. Since it’s the company’s first foray in this direction, Nokia isn’t exactly aiming this at Mr. Tech Savvy Know-It-All.

The phone itself will be available later this year for €279, or around $380.

Official Press Release [Nokia]