Interesting night, although they were pretty much preaching to the converted and despite having a largely technical audience there were no technical people present from Nokia/Maemo.

I had a word with Tanjia (sp?) from marketing, and interest has far exceeded all expectations (she's worried demand may outstrip supply) and there will be no more Symbian based N-series devices between now and 2012 - all future N-series phones will be Maemo based with Symbian reserved for the E-series and low-end to mid-tier devices. No Maemo based E-series phones are planned, Maemo is strictly N-series.

Build quality of the N900 I played with was very good (cheers Tom!), the slide was solid with little if any horizontal movement. Sensitivity of the screen was a bit iffy however - it responded reliably when I used my nail but not always when using my finger. With my finger it would sometimes not respond at all. Not a huge problem as I don't mind using my nail but a potential Nokia prat fall for those tech sites that obsess about capacitive screens. Performance was very nippy though, and overall I came away impressed, it definitely has the makings for a great device and platform.

The only other problem I encountered was the device not locking the screen when the slide was closed - I mentioned about the Autolock functionality available on the N810 (automatic locking/unlocking when the device is put in or removed from the pocket) and he knew of it an admitted it would be a nice idea. Shame it hasn't been implemented on the N900 - opportunity missed.

@MikeC: Cheers and hope you're feeling better.