ESPOO, Finland - With its competitors, Samsung and Sony Ericsson waging the pixel-war in the high-end camera-phone segment, Nokia seems to be joining the bandwagon with its very own 12 megapixel camera-phone, as a YouTube clip showing images of the alleged Nokia device has surfaced on the web.

The leaked device which is shown to bear the model N87, packs a 600MHz processor along with 16GB of onboard memory, giving it the bearings of a high-end smartphone. The 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss sensor is well complimented by a Xenon flash on top of the dual LED flash, and a 3.2" capactive touchscreen display with 800x480 pixels in resolution.

The leaked image also shows a slider keypad, probably for music controls. While the specifications seem reasonable for a high-end smartphone, the slider keypad seems largely out of place on a touchscreen phone. Further, the menu and call button on the screen, give it a very N97-look , raising some doubts on the authenticity of the leaked model.

However, the possibility of a 12 megapixel device from Espoo cannot be totally ruled out. A previous revelation from one of PhoneReport's sources in Nokia and Carl Zeiss did suggest a 12 megapixel camera phone equipped with optical zoom among other things. Further, the revolutionary technology from Carl Zeiss, which doesn't compromise on the pixel size of the sensor, contrary to the sensors used by Samsung and Sony Ericsson, may give the camera-phone from Nokia a definite edge over its competitors. While the authenticity and reliability of the leaked device cannot remains under contention, only time will tell if the speculated device is in fact a real deal.