The N9 has just about the same hardware as the sgs2 except for the single-core cpu. That is definately not mid-end in my book, besides I'd rather take more battery time than more horse power in a handset. And iirc the camera in the N9 is a new module which may be more expensive and iirc the display got higher resolution than the sgs2.

I haven't tried the N9 yet but the N950 is very snappy and without hdmi i can't see the use with a dual-core anyway. It'll be very interesting to see reviews soon where they put the N9 against the competition. My guess is that the N9 will hold its own very well in all different kinds of tests. And with Qt/QML beeing the best app toolkit there will be plenty of good quality apps for the N9 too.

One thing that people should be aware of though is that Harmattan's UX is very simple (dumbed down). I wouldn't exactly call it geek friendly more like granny friendly. From what I've seen of Symbian Belle so far it slaughters Harmattan's UX if you just look at the features. Harmattan is made to be Meego for the masses so if you're looking for something to mod you should try it irl first before ordering. Of course, as the N9 got an open bootloader you can nuke Harmattan and run whatever you want on it but that's another story.

Edit: tv ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysvzFLJLeg

Edit2: camera test http://mynokiablog.com/2011/09/18/lo...taken-with-n9/