The Nokia X3 Touch and Type has been announced and comes as a complete surprise as we weren't expecting any new device announcements until Nokia World 2010 next month. The Nokia X3 Touch and Type offers up a unique combination of a touchscreen and traditional 12 button phone keypad. Read on to find out more about the Nokia X3 Touch and Type handset.

The Nokia X3 was first introduced in September 2009 and now we get the Nokia X3 Touch and Type, which is set to be launched in a range of funky colours and will costs around 125 Euros, depending on taxes etc when it ships later in the next few weeks.

Mixing up a 12 button keypad and a 2.4-inch touchscreen, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type is something of a budget all-rounder aimed at those who want to make the most of Ovi services, especially messaging when out and about. The Communities app will keep you up-to-date with Twitter and Facebook.

The Nokia X3 Touch and Type will be offered with Ovi Music Unlimited in those territories where it's live, such as the UK, allowing access to a library of over 11 million tracks. There’s also a MicroSD memory card slot, which allows up to 16GB of storage. Battery life is rated at five hours talk time or 17 days on standby, which is pretty neat for a device of this size.

So, what do you think, is the Nokia X3 Touch and Type the sort of device you'd like to get your hands on? Let us know in the Comments below.