I've been searching for a mobile device for sometime, I've done a lot of reading, but having trouble deciding on anything. The main use of this device will be for business (I'm buying it, but they pay for the data). Main need is for good work email/calendar/contacts, also have need to at least view MS Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), but editing is probably not really needed. Also need to be able to run some mainstream apps (CRM, Expensify, ZipCar, banking, etc...) that will most likely never be available via Maemo or Meego.

So obvious answer would be to get an Android or iOS device since I need apps that run on those platforms, problem is I don't really like Android (and like iOS even less). The multitasking/task switching is not very useful (although it looks like this is improved in ICS?), browsing the internet feels clumsy, and it feels like I come across a million little annoyances every time I use an Android phone that were done much better in Maemo.

So then I thought about the N9. On the pro side it is a nice looking, new device that runs what seems like a generally nice OS. Decent size screen. I can get the 64GB version for almost the same as the 16GB. It looks like I should be able to install NITDroid to run the Android apps I need. On the con side is no keyboard, stylus, or really any physical buttons and a niggling feeling that it really isn't as capable of an OS as Maemo 5.

So that brings me to the N900. I never really thought I wanted one of these since the screen is smaller than what I'd like, and it doesn't work on the carrier of my choice...but now I'm thinking I could use this as data only and keep my current dump phone for voice calls. It's only about $100 cheaper for a new N900 than the N9, which seems like a pretty small difference in price for hardware that is 2 years older. I'm not much of a spec guy, but I would like to make sure that the hardware is capable of browsing the web relatively quickly (my N800 is so slow browsing that I rarely use it for that purpose), and that it will be relatively capable for 2 more years or so.

So I appreciate anyone who has read this far. A lot of this is just thinking out loud to clarify my own thoughts, but I do have two specific questions.

1) Am I right that while NITDroid might not have all functionality of Android just yet, I should be capable of installing and running most apps?

2) Any major differences in performance of NITDroid on the N900 vs. N9? Any consensus of which device would work better as an Android?

Any other thoughts on things I might not be thinking about clearly?