Hot on the heels of their new Mobile site, YouTube has now also released an official (native) S60 client application. It is compatible with most S60 3rd Edition phones. The video quality is good, and looks to have been optimised for QVGA screen resolution. There's a basic interface to browse and search through YouTube's extensive video catalog. All videos are shown in full screen, but widescreen videos are shown in a 'letter-box' format. Read on for more information and screenshots.

The application allows you search for videos, or view lists of the top rated, most viewed and most recent videos (as seen on the web version). Choosing any of these loads a list of videos with an image 'carousel' at the top of the screen. You can quickly browse through the available videos, viewing both a thumbnail, a short description and miscellaneous information about the video.

Home screen, a search for kittens, and loading a video (shown mid-transition to landscape orientation).

Selecting a video opens and starts playing it in landscape orientation. Pressing any key shows the standard YouTube controls. You can then change the volume, play/pause the video or jump forward and backward through the video.

Video playback with associated controls

You can download the application by visiting m.youtube.com in Web and following the download link near the top of the page. However, currently the application appears to be restricted to Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The client is not currently fully compatible with S60 5th Edition (Nokia 5800, you can't enter search text, and other issues), but it is safe to assume this will change in due course, in addition to other countries being supported.

Power users may like to bear in mind that the interface is relatively basic when compared to donate-ware Mobitubia. For example there's no way to 'Save' clips, but for most users it will be more than sufficient.

Thanks to E71 fanatics for spotting this.