I have always needed a phone with an external antenna as I live out in an area not served well by cell towers. I replaced an E815, which I found to be a bit better overall due to its flash and Bluetooth capability, but the shell was slippery. I have the V325 that does not have Bluetooth, but all of the other features are the same. The rubber trim is great for protecting the phone when dropped, the camera is okay (no flash), sound is pretty decent and my battery life after 6 months is days of standby and hours of talk time. If using a car charger without setting the timer, you can affect the phone's ability to charge properly and that may be what causes some of the battery problems listed. I have read about the slowness issue, and having a lot of text messages saved in the phone causes this. Deleting both the sent and received messages will return the phone to a speed that is the same of any other phone. Overall, it is a rugged phone that looks decent, will take much more abuse than the Razor phones (my friend has had three in two years, I have run over my phone with the car and it is fine), and the 325i with Bluetooth is a good, solid phone for many cell phone users.