To be upfront, I've been an S60 user for the past two years. I was introduced to the smartphone world courtesy of a WM5 device and jumped into S60 after a friend offered an E62 in exchange for some tech-support for his new Black Jack. I was using a WM6 "Pocket PC" at the time (Cingular-branded (HTC) 8125) and thought, "why not". What got me hooked though was the potential of the N-series line up of phones (Cingular just killed the E62's potential), and the N73 got me hooked. Good quality photos and videos from a cellphone? Check. The then-revolutionary N95 served me faithfully for two years - I've uploaded countless pictures to my Flickr account from it and posted video to you Blip/YouTube. So when the N97 was announced...well, I wanted it, but there was no way I was going to pay $700 for a phone. Luckily, I was one of the "lucky" ones who took advantage of a pricing snafu on nokiausa.com and got it for under $500.00.

I've used the phone for about three weeks now, and I have to say, for my all-around needs, I love it. The screen is large, perfect for reading emails (pushed instantaneously thanks to Nokia Messaging), viewing web pages, taking good quality pictures and video, listening to streaming music (via last.fm)...the list goes on!

Is it perfect? Hardware wise, it's close (some have said it feels cheap, but it feels great in my hand), but from a software standpoint there needs to be some growth. It may get close to it if Nokia continues to build upon it through firmware updates (if the N95 is any indication, they will). Though no firmware will be able to adjust for the low amount of disc space available on the C: drive. RAM may be improved upon, but there's not much to work with at the moment. It's also on Nokia now to provide more apps via the Ovi store (especially the home-screen widgets!) to continue to improve upon the device's potential as an iPhone/Pre/Insert High-End Smartphone Here competitor.

That said, for hardcore S60 users, it's a device you'll feel at home with immediately and there's not much you can't do on the phone, at least from my experience and daily needs.