Motorola V551 - The most awesome phone I've ever owned.

So I was checking out Jim's latest post over at his blog, Jim's Fear, about his new phone. He recently upgraded to an iPhone 4 but was singing the praises of his longtime companion, the Samsung Blackjack. This made me reminisce a bit about some of the phones I have owned over the years. I've never been one to use the same phone for an extended period of time but I always have at least one or two backups that stay with me for a while.

The one phone that has been a constant in my life for quite a few years now is the Motorola V551.

Yes, it is a flip phone. Don't judge me! I loved this thing from the day I bought it and I still love it. While I couldn't use it as a daily gadget these days, I still bring it out from time to time if I know there is a chance I might be taking an unintentional fall or swim. Fishing and camping trips are when it sees the most use these days. To me though, it is still the perfect cell phone. Obviously, I don't even put most of the newer devices into the "cell phone" category. My iPhone is not a cell phone, its a damn computer.

But the Motorola V551 is just a phone. And it does its job well. The best sound quality of any phone I've ever owned. It had insane battery life and was just tough. It has been dropped and kicked and thrown and otherwise just generally abused and it has never once had a single operational issue. Sure, it isn't the most beautiful thing in the world, but I still love it.