While not a programmer, I am a geek, otherwise I wouldn't own the N9, right?

Quick background: I own an iPod Touch 4th gen, a Nexus 7 tablet, an HP Touchpad and, up till last Wednesday, had been using Windows Phone. I have owned a Nokia N810 (still one of the greatest pieces of tech I've ever owned) and a Nokia N900.

Even more background: I don't care about apps. I read email, use the camera, check some web sites and use Spotify. All doable on the N9. Yes, the app store is tiny, but I knew that going in and didn't care. This phone may be a hard sell to a 19 year old, but I am in my 30s and am way over the "i need 5000 apps" thing.

So, how am I getting on? Well, after a bunch of tweaks, I now have the N9 where I want it. I am using it on T-Mobile in the USA, depending on where I am in my city, I get everything from 3.5G to 2G.

When I tried to use the N9 as I did my Windows Phone, it was almost unusable. Windows Phone seems to be able to handle "being on" all the time, running background tasks without slowing the phone down. The N9, didn't like that. It's not a big deal for me. I had to find the perfect balance between refreshing my RSS feeds and my email. I had to turn off Facebook feeds.

I installed FasterN9 which, I guess, works. I almost see no difference, then again, I really only have emails constantly updating. I imagine I could tweak endlessly (from reading these forums) and get it faster and have it operate the way I want, but I am quite alright with how it is running now.

Now, the phone is responsive. It works at the speed I want. Sure, when I manually refresh my feeds it slows down a bit, but that is a 1st-world problem. Having to wait an extra 10 seconds will not ruin my day.

Amazingly, Spotify on MeeGo kills the Windows Phone version. It is MUCH faster and has more options. I am very happy with that.

Vimeo on Meego is good, not great. The video quality makes it almost unusable.

My verdict: N9 is a great phone. Sure, you need to poke and prod to get it where you want to go, but once you get there, it is solid. Also, if you care about these things, almost everyone I know has asked about the phone since I started carrying it. And not just asked, they grab it, caress it and want to know more. It's like walking in to a room with a 2-headed snake.

I plan on getting a Lumia 920 when they are released. Ultimately, I've grown accustomed to WP and its fluidity. But I always wanted to try MeeGo and I felt this was a good month to do it. Who knows, perhaps the N9 will help push my L920 lust back a month or so.