Just a few months after the N95’s first birthday, Nokia’s prepping to launch it’s big bad brother, the N96. According to rumors floating around the intertubes, this little puppy might be in the hands of Nokia fans as early as October 1st – at least, in the UK. No word yet on US pricing or availability, though past reports have pinned it around $800-$1000 US ducats. Chances are, it won’t be in the bought-on-a-whim price range.

If you like the N95, you’ll want to snuggle up next to the N96 and never let go. They’ve doubled the storage space from 8 GB to 16, upped the screen size, doubled the camera flash, improved audio playback, added support for WMV9 and H.264 playback, and made a ton of design improvements (like the built-in kickstand).

I’m definitely looking forward to playing with this one.

[Via BGR]