Originally Posted by gerbick

Nope. After getting past the commentary, I do not disagree with his assessment of the N9. It's a phone that's built out of a normally cheap - in price and application - material that is done in such an industrial application/methodology that I look past it as being polycarbonate.

The screen, I have to say that its sharpness saves it from being so damn small. I have big hands. I want a bigger screen. 4.1 inches is my absolute minimum, and I'm making excuses for the 3.9 inch screen that the N9 has. But it is sharp. And looks great even in moderate sunlight. I cannot say that about any iOS device. Can say that the N900 fared a bit better, but not to the point I'd switch back.

The reception... I'm starting to have problems in some areas where it's weaker - mostly where iOS and my Android devices would downright fail, the reception would invoke that robotic voice.

I've run into stutters every now-and-then. Some frustrate the ever-lovin' hell out of me - mainly around phone, contacts, Skype and switching the audio from Bluetooth to Device. It just freezes every now-and-then and I lose my religion sometimes. It stutters. Anybody that says it doesn't, they're not using it as an actual damn phone. I'm not going to overlook that, but you know what? I can say that WP7 on my Dell Venue Pro hangs a bit in the transition from Device to Bluetooth (opposite direction) most of the time too.

Camera has been a positive and a negative. Fast as hell. Introduces a crapload less noise than say my Atrix or Dell Venue Pro - all WP7 phones prior to the Lumia 800 had horrible cameras. In a natural light setting, it's killer. The moment I have to use flash though, the results are all over. Too dark, too many shadows, added noise... something's gonna go wrong and I better be close to Photoshop. But if I shoot with the sun to my back or not in the frame, I can pull off some incredible photos. Fluorescent lighting gives it a fit. Sometimes it comes out too blue shifted, so you have to add yellow to even it out. Or if it's incandescent lighting, it can turn out too yellow, and the reverse applies. Don't use the camera at night...

Battery life has been absolutely great for me... when I'm not in Developer's Mode. Once I did that, battery life went to absolute ****. And talking about battery life, what kind of damn car charger do I need!? 2.1 amp is enough to charge an iPad. But not enough for the N9? What the hell!? I'm honestly disliking that. Immensely.

Wi-Fi settings... I find the wi-fi reception poor compared to my Atrix.

Keyboard - love Swype, hate the fact that if I start any word with the letter P, I might be switching from the Swype keyboard to the standard keyboard. Way too sensitive on that. I do it at least three times a day. The normal VKB is actually good, but man, you have to be a sharpshooter. And I have big hands, so it can get frustrating. Sure, it's supposed to be flexible; however that doesn't mean that it's not a pain every now-and-then.

I'll have to go back and re-read what Eldar said, but as far as it goes, I'll say this. What he says, after his commentary is rather accurate.

It's the rest of the bitter pill that people are unable to deal with... but let's face it. We'll never have What'sApp, we'll probably not get a lot of updates nor bigger vender 3rd party support. And Elop wants it to go away. MeeGo is gone, Tizen is "here" and Harmattan may live in other iterations that might make its way onto things we will probably care very little about. The nice piece of shiny plastic in my hands looks great, works well, frustrates me how I can still outpace it - but I do that with an 8-core Mac too daily - and it's deemed a dead end, lacking experience if you're expecting Android, the N900 or iOS.

And it's neither of those. The article has merit, in my humble opinion.

Originally Posted by AndyNokia232

Ever-so-slightly off topic, but this afternoon I had the rather delightful opportunity to experience an N9 in Jack's Place, NYC. I had a few minutes to play around with it, and I must say, I'm taken by it! Of course, glancing down to see the $799 price tag on the phone's display stand nearly made me puke, but it was SOOO nice! Actually I think I messed it up, because I was so interested in the polycarbonate (yeah, the girl told me "it's all metal" - oh bless her, she thought earlier that the E72 was a recent model!) I inadvertently lightly scratched the back surface with my thumbnail as I was "feeling it up" so to speak. Have I permanently marked the thing now, and does that mean it's very easy to mark like that?
Ab-so-lute-ly loved the swiping and the scrolling slickness.
More tempted than ever now

Originally Posted by BigBadGuber!

I am glad to see that you agree with me.

Originally Posted by Konceptz

Go to mobile city online (s)noho, much cheaper

Originally Posted by AndyNokia232

Great info! Thanks. Do you know if the staff in there actually know what they're talking about? I feel like there's nothing worse than going into a cell phone store with a grain of knowledge, and you try and spark up a nerdy conversation with your grain of knowledge, and it very quickly becomes apparent that the sales clerk has a poppy-seed of knowledge, and even that is all wrong. I mean, being told the N900 was the "last Symbian Meego phone Nokia produced" was like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard!!!

Originally Posted by gerbick

Be honest with yourself. How many times have you walked into a store and they knew more than yourself?

It doesn't happen that often for me, and I'm pretty much a damn near idiot.

Do your own research, locate it for as authentic and as cheaply as you can get, and be done with it. As you can tell, some of us are still idealistic about our experience on the N9. Some of us are rather realistic. Keep asking questions and doing research.

Did you ever state what phone/platform you're coming from? That would help.

Originally Posted by gerbick

Be honest with yourself. How many times have you walked into a store and they knew more than yourself?

It doesn't happen that often for me, and I'm pretty much a damn near idiot.

Do your own research, locate it for as authentic and as cheaply as you can get, and be done with it. As you can tell, some of us are still idealistic about our experience on the N9. Some of us are rather realistic. Keep asking questions and doing research.

Did you ever state what phone/platform you're coming from? That would help.

Originally Posted by AndyNokia232

Great info! Thanks. Do you know if the staff in there actually know what they're talking about? I feel like there's nothing worse than going into a cell phone store with a grain of knowledge, and you try and spark up a nerdy conversation with your grain of knowledge, and it very quickly becomes apparent that the sales clerk has a poppy-seed of knowledge, and even that is all wrong. I mean, being told the N900 was the "last Symbian Meego phone Nokia produced" was like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard!!!