My N9 is made in China. Then I saw a Lumia 800 and the glass was a little bit more curved, the polycarbonate snugged the glass more accurately (I have about half a millimeter gap, and the glass is a little bit raised so my fingernail stops at the tiny ridge. Neither the gap nor the ridge were there on the lumia). I didn't want to believe Elop's crap about a "refinement to the N9" so I rushed to a shop to check out a Finnish N9. It was about the same as mine just a little bit more matte (that could be just from use - sliding in and out of pockets - my N900 had become almost glossy after 2 years), and the finish of the polycarbonate was better (my unit has one or two very slight bumps). I was relieved for some time but today I saw another one at another store. Flawless! I was devastated. No gap at'all. Light-absorbing matte. You could feel nothing but the texture change swiping from the body to the glass. It was just perfect. So how can we distinguish the poorly built from the best without opening the box? They had a Lumia side by side and it was better than my N9 but really not as smooth as the sample N9. Is it completely random due to the high precision needed? Or was the other one I saw chinese with PR001 firmware (I couldn't see the made in tag, I just checked the firmware version)

Just variation in quality control unfortunately...
I don't think it matters if it was made in the main Finnish plant, the Chinese one, or elsewhere.
It would be nice if we could know which Chinese, Finnish etc. batches have the best QC.
But I think that will be too hard to determine...

I saw a chinese one 3 days ago. It was better assembled than my finnish one.

i have a china made and a finland made. there is a slight difference in how the audio jack is set.

the china one is absolutely flat to the surface, and the finland one is slightly different and is more rounded. other then that, they are the same imo

Audio jack on mine (finland) is flat.

Just a bit curious as my N95 is made in FInlad, my N900 is made in Korea and my N9 is made in Chna

It's said that the body and buttons feel different, but it could just be some minor niggles with the device (or user).

Also, for users of the 64GB N9 made in Finland, you may want that eMMC checked

What's wrong with the eMMC? :C I have one made in Finland still in the box, I'm still using the China one.

One time I had to open my N9 (because a piece of plastic broke off the SIM tray and got stuck). Two (!) screws were missing in mine. Guess what; made in china -_-

Please elaborate...