Nokia this week announced the N9, their new, Meego based smartphone.

First impressions were, impressive. It’s a phone with a very sleek, sexy design, that feels very nice in the hand. This is possibly a phone upon which the future of Nokia may well ride. They’ve been having a bit of a hard time of things lately, and although their user base is loyal, its market share is being eaten away by more modern, more highly featured phones. One has to wonder a little though, as to where Nokia is heading. Will this phone, with its Meego operating system, be a portent of what’s to come? Or will their recent agreement with Microsoft, which will see some Nokia phones sporting the Microsoft Phone 7 OS, be the ultimate future path down which Nokia will stride?

The hardware feels nice and fast, well built, and with a big bright screen that will disappoint nobody. The casing is made of polycarbonate. The same stuff that they use for making ice hockey helmets, according to the marketing people at the launch event. I couldn’t help but remind myself … “polycarbonate … that’s plastic, right?”. It does come in three colours however, black, cyan, and magenta.

The screen is slightly curved, and made of a scratch resistant glass, but I didn’t actually put that to the test.

There’s a good variety of standard applications included within the Meego operating system. What will eventually pan out from the Nokia App Store, in the future, is yet to be seen, of course.

The user interface has a clean, crisp, up to date feel about it. It is easy to use, and fairly intuitive too.

However, with no buttons on the front – it’s a totally touch screen experience – I’m wondering just how well this site’s readers will take to this phone. If you’re up to speed with your touch screen interfaces – if you can use a pad or an iPhone, say – then the elegance and style of the N9 may win you over.

But if you have issues discriminating between a touch and a hold, and swiping is what you used to do to the kids when they were young and naughty, then this phone may not be for you.