keyboard? sure doesn’t suck. i love it. sure, it’s got some minor issues, but far better than not having a physical keyboard at all. and also much better than the T9 input on my old n95. iphone keyboard? i can’t argue honestly, i haven’t tried to use it for prolonged periods, but my short term experience was very frustrating.

UI parity with iphone? nope, won’t happen. i wish it would, but this is not as important to me as other facets of the device. for an easy analogy, compare windows to macosx. sure, macosx is prettier (to me anyways) but that’s not why it’s better than windows. a proper microkernel and more freedom of choice in your software. right: there’s not as much mac software as there is windows software, and much of the ‘required’ apps are windows only. but the software to choose from is entirely more capable of being great software on the mac. likewise between n97 and iphone. the iphone has development locked down to prevent access to sensors except at apple’s will. that’s just bad mojo. my n97 enables great software to be written just as the macosx enables great software to be written: through openness and making frameworks, APIs and raw hardware all available to developers.

don’t like the n97? fair enough – buy an iphone or an android phone or a moto razr for all i care. personally, i love this thing. it’s got kinks, but compared to the iphone i’m still happy to have spent my money where i did. my biggest complaint? the self-destroying camera lens. that’s huge. i bought a replacement for $12 and am looking into how to add a chamois to the sliding mechanism before installing it. this little flaw is unforgivable and the only place where my opinion of the device falls considerably. iphone? no lens cover at all. i suppose that’s better than one that does damage. you win!

-bit