Yes many of those annoying bugs got fixed with PR 1.2. I would say this update brought the N9 in many ways to another level. I actually would even say that the N9 was not 100% market ready before PR 1.2. But as we know its Nokia (always need some more time...), the development team has been e(f)loped (reduced), and every new platform generally needs its time.

I'm quiet happy that the N9 doesn't have a duel-core CPU. I honestly don't know how big the impact of such a stronger CPU is on the battery life. But what I can say is, that battery life on the N9 is absolutely stunning. With previous smartphones I always was worried to barely make it through the day (I use them quiet heavy, especially with international internet calls). The N9 stays "alive" without problems for at least 1.5 days (and more if I turn it off at night) with Skype constantly being on, browsing, twitter, facebook and usage of other apps...

The only functions I reduced to a minimum are email-sync (once a day auto-sync and otherwise manually) and my feeds-screen only shows some RSS and videos of my youtube account.

What may also save some battery are notifications on the stand-by screen. Since f.e iPhones or WP come with a dead-standby screen where you constantly have to wake the screen up to see notifications - this might consume quiet some battery, thinking of how often people do that per day.

So yes, dual-core would be nice - but if it really affects battery life like some people claim, then I'm totally happy without that.