After many years of trusty service, my Sony Ericsson Z600 is starting to play up. Making calls and texting still works fine, but the external loudspeaker seems to be suffering a dry joint. This means that, sometimes, when someone phones me, or texts me, I have no audible cue – it doesn’t ring! Usually a tap in the right place reconnects the speaker, but obviously this isn’t so great. If I knew when someone was phoning me so I could tap the phone so I could hear it ring, I wouldn’t need it to ring in the first place!

So the question is – What phone should I get?

I quite like phones which cover the keypad when not in use, so I don’t accidentally phone people, so either a sliding phone or a clamshell would be good. Obviously I would want to make phone calls and text people, whilst only having to charge it once a week, anything else on top of that basic functionality is not so important in my mind.