My old Ericsson T39m had a greenish screen which was mostly readable but pretty small. My new Nokia 5100 has a larger color screen that I run almost entirely with black text on a white background. It's easier to read my calendar entries and to select and dial numbers while in a bouncy car. Battery life for the two phones is about the same.

I turned off the silly color wallpaper and I deleted the Java games. I need all that extra memory for contacts and calendar entries.

My concern with current cel phones is the general shoddy construction. Back in the old days, when cel phones were heavier, they were tanks. Drop 'em. Smash 'em. They were built to last. Most new phones have squeaky plastic cases. My aforementioned Ericsson fell three feet to a concrete sidewalk and it nuked the microphone. After that, I could only talk using a headset. Grumble. If it worked in the U.S., I'd probably want a Nokia 8910i. If you put comparable guts into a Vertu body and didn't charge thousands of dollars for it, that would also be attractive.