please nokia slap me again - no really

I love Nokia phones. In fact you could probably say that I have had a love affair with Nokia devices for over the last 10 years ever since my first one.

Typically they sum up everything that is important to me about technology - that it must look great and must function well too. Nokia just always seem to push my buttons when it comes to putting down my cash and getting a new phone. Don't get me wrong, I've dabbled with the dark side of Ericsson and then Sony Ericsson, I'd love to love a Motorola - really I would, but there is just something about that Finnish company that every 12 months when it's time for an upgrade makes me want to give them another chance.

Over the last few years, incredibly though, their products have got worse...

My last three phones have been a 6600, an 7710 and now an N73.

Every one of these have had internet, bluetooth, big screens, cameras and all the usual gubbins.

Why then have they got progressively worse in terms of functions?

My 6600 had terrible battery and would often crash. My 7710 had great battery, would often crash and didn't support most web page content even though it was a wide screen touchscreen that was supposed to have a fully featured web browser.

My n73 is even worse, admittedly though the Carl Zeiss lense on the 3mp camera is a piece of art and takes crystal clear photos. The web browser is much improved thanks to the Mozilla engine and the 3G connection I have which renders web pages at high speed. The battery life is awesome as well. The only problem with this one is that I can't make or receive phone calls without it crashing - literally to a black screen of death - about 80% of the time.

Vodafone won't acknowledge a problem because Nokia won't so there's no sending it back - I pity everyone who has tried and had their phone returned a couple of weeks later saying "there's no problem". It isn't just me either check this out in google: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=problems+nokia+N73+crash&meta= and you'll se the extent of the problem.

So taking a punt before xmas I bought an n770 internet tablet. Again a fine and beautiful bit of kit, but again with it's fair share of bugs - not least a *very* buggy version of opera which Nokia has decided not to support any more, leaving it's internet tablet with a very bad internet web browser - ouch - 250 quid not well spent... well at least I can make a robot out of it.

So I'm looking around again and I know that just like a jilted lover who somehow thinks that "things will be different this time" I'll be back at Nokia's bosum probably with an N95 in my hand... mmmm just look at the screen and the slidey-outy-bit... 5mp camera, 3G with 11 GPRS slots for quick downloading... I really don't need to make a phone call.