for me, the n97 is a brilliant phone...fast fully featured phone.
updates via wifi in 3mins no pc required can't get any easier than that.
sure it still has room for improvement but out of the box its a awsome phone.
an hour playing with one and you'll be at home with its new interface.
ive never liked using touch screen phones but this didnt bother me on this phone with its builtin keyboard and large screen display (my hate with the xperia is the writings and icons are super small)
at under 30k not that pricy at all considering its nokia flagship phone with all the bells and whistles they manage to cram into this phone. literally this has virtually all the features in one phone (except DigitalTV which has very poor reception here in cebu anyways...almost to the point of useless so no biggy)
id get this over the iphone any day...