Get to love it, but hate it's problems. Review on Panasonic GD 68

I've been using the phone for about 2.5 years (bought it as it was just introduced). When I bought it, it cost me 10K, now I hear it's much cheaper. The charger blew up once (bought a replacement at the local shop for 150), and I use the LG handsfree (available everyone for the reliance LG phones). The battery is on it's death bed, but I'm debating about changing the battery or just buying a new phone.

Good things:

• Love the joystick and the Interface

  
  




• Light, small and cute

  
  




• Feature rich - GPRS etc.

  
  




• Much cheaper than other models with similar features

  
  




• Comes with speakerphone (though clarity and voice pickup is poor)

  
  




• Joy to use.

  
  

Problems with the phone:

• Ringtones that you can't hear at all! Almost every day I have a couple of missed calls because I did not hear the phone ring in a crowded or noisy place

  
  




• Hangs every now and then, even though it will show full strength signal

  
  




• Auto shutdown - every 1-2 weeks it will shut down automatically though there's full battery.

  
  




• Poor signal pickup, calls get dropped all the time, while my wife's Nokia 3315 keeps going with the same provider at the same place

  
  




• Battery - got no life - max 2 days, normal use - 1 day

  
  

If I were to change my phone, I would almost certainly not go for another GD68 or Panasonic, but would really miss the joystick based navigation. Makes using the phone as easy as a video game with a joystick, vs. a video game with keyboard keys. I wish folks at Nokia would pick up the joystick, and the folks at Panasonic would improve the product - especially the obvious things like ring volume.