I noticed, some of those established review sites have incredibly terse and odd reviews. 3 minutes of video from a guy in a bar who struggles to remember the specs for the phone. They do have 25 different reviews for every color iPhone ever made. And then head-to-head comparison of X3 versus iPhone, ignoring one is 99 EUR and the other is 900 EUR and 99.

And they get paid. Oh well. I wouldn't touch Apple money anyway (I'm a b*tard, I would totally touch money with both hands).

IMO, N9 is exclusively for people who want Linux. I have 3 in family, and it annoys me in 5 seconds. I have always hated interfaces that make me learn everything by heart. This is the very definition for counter-intuitive. A device should be like a dog, learning your habits and holding the door when you exit, not like a master, training you to exit when it opens the door.

I also don't think the extra hassle and the accidental swapping and closing due to swiping screen is worth the extra advantage of not having one *** button. What did they gain? Is it waterproof? No. Is it scratchproof? No. Malfunction-proof? No. It still has power and 2 volume buttons. It's not like one more would kill the device.

"no button UI". Can you imagine these people making a car? "No, Sir, there are no brakes. Instead, stomp the accelerator and turn the steering wheel full left and it will brake. Also, if you want air conditioning on, you have to hold your foot to your chest like a baby, and sing softly to it."

I rant. It is a nice device, though. Very similar to L800 in design, slim, light and carefully crafted. Smells of quality from across the room. Problem is, it has Nokia-ish software. Copy/paste is limited, UI is unfinished, no flash (and not getting one), not optimized for the device. In fact, all the parts that are MeeGo in it have been designed to be scaled up to tablets and even PCs. This hasn't worked well in .. well, ever.

And then there are the bugs that are raining in. Wifi, tethering, etc. Google shows 4 million hits (two being TMO and the bugtracker, so it cheated). On the other side of the fence, Lumia has 1 million hits. mainly the battery bug, which has been fixed 3 days ago. That's right, already patched, compiled, tested and pushed to users. there are advantages to DLLs, you know, it's not all hell. So, -battery -bateria -baterie and so on, it's down to about 400K. Half of the first 3 pages have no mentions of bugs, it's just random hits from text on pages. And yes, MS does have a bug and suggestion forum with votes and stuff.

I'm not even going to lean into a the direction of a discussion that could remotely be interpreted as Windows versus Linux. That would be silly, especially since it wouldn't be true. I will say this: Your N9 bugs get listed on a Nokia tracker. For me, that is enough to not want it any more.

If you really want Linux (be it half MeeGo, half Maemo and all dead), then N9 is a nice, light, well polished device from a hardware point of view. Roughly speaking, the best and only Linux worth buying. It also looks like an upgraded N900, except it lacks a precise screen (capacitive) and a keyboard. Which is like saying it's the best girlfriend in the world, except she lacks a balcony and a behind. I don't really care if she can cook. I can look into her eyes and a better cook can cook for me (it's called SSH/VNC). And no, none of that we'll patch it. It's like saying that is she lost 50 pounds and get dressed up and touched up, she'd be fairly sweet. I can get fairly sweet right now, for the same price. In fact, it's more expensive than the L800.

90% of the appeal of N900 was the screen that could run PC-like UI if you had good vision, and it used all of it (because of the pen). With N9, 80% of it is the keyboard. Oh, and, it has no Ctrl, Shift, Alt or anything. I'm sure someone will or has hacked one in by now. Still, crammed bash (haha, sounds like a recipe. And la specialite de chef, chremed bash). Not cool. And if you have an external keyboard, then you have doubled the size of the device and paired a geek with a phone that looks like Tom Cruise. It'll just make you look bad. It's like hacking an alien spaceship with an Apple laptop. You're going to have your own internet meme.

But, as you said, in 6 months, the new Windows is coming out and frankly, this isn't so bad either. Plus, at 1400 MHz, there is no reason newer Windows won't run on L800. Even if you think Mango is unfinished, by July Windows is going to get new features that MeeMae whatever the heck is on N9 isn't going to have because I assume there will be little patching. And the 600Eur one pays for N9 is steep for 6 months if you upgrade.

What I'm saying is this:

If you lean towards Windows, either wait or get the Lumia now - I can pretty much guarantee it will be updated - it is currently the best looking, highest quality build, best brand name phone with WP. It will be carried on.

If you want Linux, get the N9. There is no point in waiting, there isn't going to be an N10 and the difference is only going to grow worse, I can't imagine N9 will get the same attention as the whole WP7 line. Nokia simply doesn't have it in them. The golden age of N9 is NOW. Ironically, it also has the most bugs NOW.

Oh, and, one more. There is such a thing as Lumia 710. It's not nearly as beautiful, and it has a lower camera. But it's cheaper with similar specs. Though I wouldn't. Why pay 500 for ugly when you can pay 600 for splendid?