I've been experimenting with my N9 & I would say that it's better than the N900. Less noise, better exposure, better white balance, better flash & worst auto-focus. Yes, so many times I've used the N9 on macro mode only to find out it didn't focus on the object I was aiming at.
But one thing we can agree on is that the N9 is nowhere near N8 quality.

& one big problem I have with the N9 is camera shake. In dark conditions, the process of tapping the on-screen button adds enough vibration to add some motion blur to the photo (like yours above). You never notice it on-screen, it's only when you view it on your PC that it turns out to be terrible.