Well, it's looking more and more likely that I'll have to fly home to England for Christmas, and that's where my $700 is going, straight into Virgin Atlantic's pockets. Maybe it's for the best, as someone said earlier, in a few months or so, I could pick one up for a lot less than than once "New Gadget Fever" has subsided. I just really want the last true Maemo device after having enjoyed my N900 so much! And I am just a basic user who downloaded from the repos but that's as far as I went - not a power hacker of any kind.

I also love the idea of being in the States with something hardly anyone else will have, even when they release the Lumia 800 here, this still will be different (with a better OS and UI!)

Even if you don't like it you can sell it on ebay and get almost all your money back if you take good care of it. Or just view it as renting and sell it in a year if something else comes along you want to try. But, this is of course assuming you can realistically afford the $689. Personally I don't have many more hobbies than mobile phones and I use it heavily every day so it is worth it for me.
My personal thoughts on N9 (coming from N82>E71>N900>iPhone3G>Nexus One>N8>N9)
Although it still needs some minor fixes it is an excellent phone with one of the best feel and build of any phone on the market except maybe E71.
The UI will ruin you for life and you will become unable to use phones without swipe interface and you will wonder how you lived without it for so long.
Camera is as good as most other current offerings except the N8 but the Maps needs updated to be just as good as the S^3 is right now. The rest of my needs are well met and N9 will likely get even better as the community works on more apps to add functionality.

Apologies for dredging up an old thread, but I'm still playing with the idea of buying an N9. Thing is, I've been scouring over TMO and some other MeeGo websites, and I'm a little concerned about a few things, which perhaps some bright spark here could clarify:
Being in the USA, is it true that any N9 bought over the web (at NewEgg for example) will originally be from one of the official release countries (such as Germany or Australia) and if this is the case, can any updates such as PR 1.1 or later 1.2 be updated OTA while in the States, or will I have to workaround to get the update?

Also, I've read that some basic functionality - such as calling, email with MfE, and contacts - is spotty, and in some cases plain old broken. Is this a case-by-case thing, or are there 'well-known' big problems across the OS in general?

On the plus (and confusing) side I've also read absolutely loads of positive things which is helping to push me in the right direction, but I'm scared of splashing out that amount of $ to be stuck with a phone that has big problems and very little/no Nokia/retailer support if things go wrong as I'm in a non-official N9 country, the US.

Thanks!

I was going through the same thing you are. I researched forever looking at all the good and bad. I was worried that if I spent this much ($654 from newegg w/extra 1 yr service net warranty) that if it breaks or something better from Nokia comes out I would be screwed. However, I found that buying from Newegg turned out to be easy and quick. They have the US charger in the box. They offer 30day replacement and the extra warranty is helpful because it also covers accidents including water spills, drops etc. Unfortunately, the terms of service net warranty state that if you do make a claim they have options to fulfill the claim: repair, replace, refund for current market value, or to buy out the remainder of your warranty which sucks. On a brighter note, if you're a homeowner and have homeowner's insurance with mostly anyone except for statefarm, you can ask for a personal articles policy to cover a cell phone which the most cost $35 a year. I would have went this route but I have statefarm and they don't cover cell phones. If you do get a personal articles policy, depending on insurance you have they may not require a big deductible and will send you a check in the mail for a new device!
Oh and I got the cyan N9 from newegg and it had the pr1.1 update. It's really an amazing device even though there's not as many apps as other OSes, there are still many good apps that are useful and easy to find rather than just going through over 500,000 where a lot of it is just junk. Hopefully Alien Dalvik comes out, or developers start utilizing Html5 for apps.

I have an N9- BLACK 16 GB for sale, Im going back to the N900 because I need a keyboard. Ill give you a little discount lmk Thanks ! And I am in US as well,

For anything over $100, the N9 is a joke. For $700 you'd be sorely regretting it, even if you told yourself you weren't. MeeGo is NOT Maemo and the N9 is NOT an upgraded N900 - more like a downgraded N8. If you've made extensive use of your N900, the N9 just won't cut it. And if your N900 still works, what ungodly reason could you have to replace it? My advice is to forget about Nokia altogether, keep your CSSU'd and kernel-power'd N900 indefinitely, and keep an eye on what Intel comes up with in the tablet area in the coming years.

Love to know the condition and what you're asking for it. I'm in NYC. I've seen the N9 in action at Jacks Place on 51st St. Loved it. But $799 just ain't in my budget!!

I just received mine from Negrielectronics, it was made in China. I got the PR 1.1 update OTA about an hour or two after turning it on. I think the basic functionality problems is a case by case issue, as i have not had any problems yet***Knock on wood***. Negri's price was $534.50 USD after coupon. Negri is also a licensed repair shop & told me if there were a warranty issue, i would send it to their repair shop in Las Vegas, NV. By the way, i'm loving this phone !!