so far most comparisons are based on speculations and pre-releases. I'll decide when I can physically check them against each other.

No idea. Reviewers seemed to be quite enthusiastic about it, while
I've heard that Nokia is not be happy with the power management yet.
It's possible that Motorola found some clever tricks or that Nokia
is just overly perfectionistic..?

there seem to be mixed reactions. some reviewer write
that after getting used to it they had no problems.
All mobile keyboard are different, anyway.
I'm waiting for the European GSM/UTMS version,
which is supposed to be Quadband.

yes, that's my main problem.

I think a Maemo/Mer port to Sholes would prove that Maemo is a really open (=portable) platform and popularize it,
especially if you can run your old Andriod apps in a subwindow.