So, I bought an N8. Fourteen days to return for the cost of shipping? Worth the experiment.

I'll be returning it and going back to my N900.

The N8 is svelte and fast and has that impressive 12MP camera and some good widgets. Email works well, a good client. Pixelpipe is well embedded in the "Send" functionality.

I miss the keyboard on my N900. I even missed the software keyboard. I miss the very smooth integration of IM and SMS in the conversation application. I miss Skype, and really miss its smooth integration into the phone application.

I miss the tag cloud for tagging and distributing photos. I miss the really flexible desktops, where web shortcuts show up as thumbnails and contacts or applications go where you want them to.

The themes on the N900 really skin the device, all the way to the menu icons in many cases. The very fact that someone could actually write an MMS application that plays well with everything on the device - I was, and remain, impressed. (Yes, I know it's not necessary for it to be written for the N8. I'm not disputing that. But I can send MMS messages on my N900, which is all I care about - not that it didn't come in the tin.)

I can SSH into my N900 from my Mac and wander around its drives - wirelessly - and drag and drop what I need to where I want to.

I liked the maps in the N8 but the map application in the N900 is sufficient for my needs. If I need real GPS in my car, I use the real GPS in my car. On foot, the N900 shows me where I am, and can show me where I need to go to get where I'm going.

And the camera? I discovered I have over 300 photos on the MicroSD I moved from my N900 to the N8. Almost all of there were taken with the N900. The camera is good.

Symbian vs Maemo. I really don't care. Symbian is small and fast - it just needs a better UI. Oddly enough, I find Maemo's UI smoother. As Symbian evolves, it will improve. I look forward to seeing what happens. I also look forward to seeing what Nokia delivers in the way of a Meego UI.

The E7? Who knows? Maybe I'll give myself a New Year's gift. It has a keyboard!