Hands on: Nokia N9 review

Update: now read our Hands on: Nokia Lumia 800 review (essentially the N9 running Windows Phone 7.5).

The Nokia N9 is the first MeeGo-powered smartphone from the Finns, and we certainly hope it won't be the last because it's actually a rather decent piece of kit.

The unibody polycarbonate chassis might feel a little plasticky to the touch, but it seamlessly integrates into the glass 3.9-inch OLED panel, which offers ClearBlack display technology to make the dark bits darker and the colours more vivid than ever before.

TechRadar used our time with the phone wisely, and managed to bag some time for a quick video preview of the new Nokia N9 as well as the plethora of photos below:

Like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the Nokia N9 design team has worked to improve the quality of the screen by bringing it closer to the glass, making it look darker than ever when the screen is turned off.

The chassis of the phone is pretty much free from buttons, save for the volume and power keys on the right hand side. There's no physical home button, with Nokia preferring to use an innovative swipe gesture to navigate around.

With no microSD card slot on offer (Nokia says the N9 will come in 16GB and 64Gb variants) the only ports live on the top of the phone, with the headphone jack, a pop-up cover to the microUSB connector and a pop-up tray for the microSIM.

That's right - the microSIM looks like it's here to stay as Nokia joins Apple in the teeny SIM club.

The only other thing of note on the front is the front-facing VGA camera... it's at the bottom of the N9, and it will be interesting to see how this works in day to day life. Assuming anyone ever starts thinking video calling is a great idea, that is.

The back of the phone is 'pillowed' in the words of Nokia, which means it sits rather nicely in the palm of the hand. The dual-LED powered 8MP camera is covered in some natty Carl Zeiss optics, and features an f2.2 aperture which is better for low-light situations.

The camera is positioned more centrally than many other smartphones on the market, which means it's easier to hold - in our brief tests, the pictures felt more like we were taking them on a normal compact, which is definitely a plus.

However, there's no physical camera key, which is a real disappointment as Nokia usually loves them and we're real fans, as it means less camera wobble when you're taking a snap. Touch to focus is on offer to improve the quality of your shots, although we didn't see it making much of a difference when we tried it out.