A couple of weeks ago I thought that it was time to move into the 21st century of mobile communications and get a smart phone. I “upgraded” to a Blackberry Curve.

The RIM website claims 19 days of standby and 4.5 hours of talk time on the Curve.

I ordered it from O2 and a few days later it arrived.

I charged the new phone, set it up and put it on my desk. A few hours later the battery was at 5% and the phone was getting all upset. I thought it was just a new battery and it needed a long charge, so I plugged it and left it on all night.

Next day after six hours it was down to 5% again. I must be doing something wrong here I thought so read all the instructions, turned off all the apps, turned of Bluetooth, 3G, the backlight, push email. So now my Blackberry was as crippled as a standard phone.

Fully charged it lasted 8 hours.

I called O2 and complained. O2 promised a replacement phone by the next day. The following day it duly arrived.

To save my typing just re-read the first few paragraphs.

Replacement phone sucked like the original.

A quick search on the web reveals that ALL smart phones suck and the battery life is terrible.

So where to the manufacturers get these standby and talk times from. Are they just making it up?

I have invoked the 14 money back guarantee that O2 offer and the phone is all boxed up to go back. Which leaves me with just one problem.

What phone do I get?