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Well after a further couple of weeks persevering with the Samsung after buying a new ‘aftermarket’ battery, I phoned 3 (Three – Vodafone Hutchison Australia) and informed them the 700 ma battery time was better than the factory 880ma battery, but only just and I still couldn’t get more than a day and a half from it on Standby, and only with minimal use.

In the intervening weeks since my last contact with 3, the new Nokia N97 mini had been released and 3 could let me have it ‘free’ on the $49/mth cap plan; all I had to do was send the Samsung back and all cancellation fees would be waived – ok, give me the N97 and I’ll see how things go from there.

The N97 is definitely a better phone in so many ways, but mainly in ‘Standby’ battery life; I’m getting 3 days + with average use. Although the camera is not as powerful as the Samsung’s 8 megapixel, the N97’s 5 mp is more than capable. Typical of Nokia is it’s good signal strength and voice clarity, although this is let down to some extent  by 3’s lousy coverage in WA – there are spots where the phone changes from 3 to Vodafone to Telstra to ‘No Signal’ on a constant, rotating basis and all over a matter of minutes, which results in dropped & missed calls – this aspect of 3 gives me the shits, especially since one of those spots is my home, and I’m supposedly in a strong 3 mobile broadband/GSM area.

OK, the N97 has 32 GB of on-board storage, whereas the N97 mini only has 8 GB … only 8 GB, that’s more than adequate for a phone, and for me (anyway, it also has a micro SD slot and I have another 4 GB in that). But the thing I really like about it is the slide out QWERTY keyboard; this makes short work of SMS texting, and also allows me to handle emails efficiently – so now I can head off on my bike and still run my business (providing I have network coverage) without having to pack the laptop – awesome!

UPDATE:
Battery standby on the N97 is definitely superior to the Samsung Ultra-Touch. I left for a country ride yesterday at 8.30am with a fully charged N97, took a half dozen photos, received some text messages,  made a couple of phone calls, and had the Home Page make a data connection to do some updates (whilst roaming); and when I got home I had to return a couple of other phone calls as well.  At 11.30am this morning the phone is still fully charged (7 out of 7  bars) – with the Samsung I would have left the same time, and had similar use, but it would have been down to 40% capacity by 2pm the same day (2 out of 5 bars); so yes I’m very happy with the N97’s battery Standby Time.