Well, I've never used a N97, but if it's anything like my E51, your description is accurate : you turn it on, and it works, and it does many mundane but useful things. For a while. Then some of these mundane useful things (like bluetooth tethering) just stop working. So you turn it off. And back on again. Till next time...

My N8x0 does somewhat less useful, but also less mundane, more varied and more fun things. Core stuff stays, a lot more comes and go. People invent all sorts of crazy uses and apps for it, but don't try to to scrounge 2$ from you for the latest pizza-ordering app.

Oh, and I almost never reboot it, as long as I remember to keep it juiced up. It doesn't tend to forget how to do bluetooth tethering and such.

All in all, I have no difficulty defining what my tablet is : it's not a phone. A phone is a modem that also does a few indispensable but boring work-related chores, like calendaring and sync. The tablet is what uses the modem for all the interesting stuff...