Well, in a way I agree with the OP. While earlier we had just 2 main platforms, Symbian & Java, the fight was mostly with regards to a better UI, build quality, music quality & cam quality. And Nokia was like Samsung while SE commanded premium (like Apple). We had everything from plastic phones to metal cases and times were simpler. There was no facebook or twitter to access.
I remember my 1st phone was a Nokia 1100, closely followed by a SE S700 (kudos to those who remember this humongous phone. Probably the thickest phone I've ever seen !). It had a massive screen (for it's time) and used to open with a 180 degree swivel ! This was followed by a M600, then W950 and for a short period, P990. Finally settled on the K850i in 2008. Was bitten by the touchscreen bug in 2009 and bought the Omnia 2, which was awesome. Loads of flashing & customizing and an uber cool AMOLED display, but it did had it cons. UI was a bit laggy and battery life was pathetic. Many apps had broken menu items and screen resolution issues. Finally couldn't bear the "charge once a day" syndrome, so sold it and went back to the good old K850i.
Since this year beginning, I've been thinking of upgrading my phone but I'm still undecided. There's nothing appealing the 15-18k bracket, which is mainly due to Android. Instead of the creativity in designing a new phone (as seen last gen with SE), all we see are carbon copies of each other with a specs bump here and there. And even then, the experience is like using Win Vista on a 1st gen netbook.
I tried using my friend's Galaxy S1 (and later S2) for more than 2 days, but the bland design & crappy UI didn't cut it. More than that, it was the lag, the moodiness of the apps, the random hang-ups/crashes and the literally crappy battery life which made me hate it. Similar case with S2. Nearly all the Sammy phones (from a low budget to the S2) look alike. Sure nit pickers can find a difference here and there, but try identifying them eyes closed and you'll be hard pressed.
I don't remember the last time my old SE crashed on me. It still makes calls and sends SMSs with the same force as before. I can still open Opera Mini and browse nearly every site I need. Email syncs work fine & I can backup contacts on Gmail. Yes, it can't play HD games but it sure as hell can play any damn Java game you throw at it. And even after doing all this, I can manage to squeeze nearly 3 days of battery life out of it. On a personal note, I'm more of a face-to-face kinda person rather than social network nut, so constant access to FB & Twitter isn't important to me. It's better to poke people in real life than on FB.
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hyeah:
I certainly feel like upgrading it, but then either it's gonna be with any of the Nokia E series phones (sexy and useful) or a WinMo 7 phone (works as expected, no issue with apps etc) or an iPhone. After doing a fair share of flashing with Omnia 2, I would prefer something which gives me a great OOB experiece (as most of the last gen phones did). Right now, the options are pretty less.