With N9, Nokia delivers proof it's getting there

The N9 is the first MeeGo-powered smartphone from Nokia. The unibody polycarbonate chassis integrates into the 3.9-inch clear black amoled panel. N9 is in a class of its own in terms of design and is the best looking and slickest device the company has released in the past years. The chassis is pretty much free from buttons, except for the volume and power keys on the right hand side. There's no physical home button, with a swipe gesture enabling navigation. The screen uses gorilla glass technology and the glass is curved outwards in order to achieve a more natural swiping motion. Article continues below The N9 is powered by a single-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX530 graphics and 1GB of RAM. The main home screen has a long list of icons to scroll through and the list will just get longer as you start downloading. The lack of HDMI output and a dedicated camera button doesn't go unnoticed. The dual-LED 8MP camera, powered by Carl Zeiss optics, won't match the quality of the N8's 12MP offering, but it performs reasonably well. The camera also doubles as a 720p HD video recorder. N9 takes advantage of the NFC integration on phones to play extra levels, which is pretty cool. ‘Back' option missing Curiously, the NFC technology is not for wireless payments — the technology makes it easy to share content like photos with other NFC-enabled devices via Bluetooth without entering a pairing number. Nokia has forgotten to include a ‘Back' button, so once you move forward to a new webpage you can't really go back again. The N9 does not support the ability to create folders for app sorting, so the app list screen does become cluttered if you download a lot of apps. The N9 does not sync Gmail contacts unless you add your Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account. It only syncs Google Talk contacts through the Google account. There are a few third-party options for both social networking services in the Nokia Store, but selection is thin compared to the well-populated Android and iOS alternatives. On a positive note, you can find plenty of apps from non-Nokia Store sources. The N9 is priced at Dh2,195 for the 16GB model and Dh2,429 for the 64GB model.