Hi, I've been surfing the net looking at mp3 players and figured for the price I might as well just get a new phone. [edit] And then I'll only have one device to carry too [/edit] There are so many phones out there and none of them seem all that good to me. I've spent hours looking and I've no idea where else to turn so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not made of money and will have to skimp and save up for a few weeks to afford even a $200 phone, anything more expensive is out of the question unless it meets all of my desires; although even the more expensive phones look pretty unappealing to me. So here is what I want, in roughly descending order of importance:

 * Plays music.
 * 3.5mm headphone jack, failing that 2.5mm.
 * Shuffle mode.
 * Absolutely NO touch screens.
 * Flip phone, others considered if their keypad lock is robust.
 * Ability to turn OFF predictive txt, preferably permanently.
 * Quality OS, home brand is fine but no LG or anything else written by monkeys. Has to be fit for purpose as a cellphone, with some room for configuration of functions.
 * FLAC playback an advantage.
 * Preferably it won't beep, flash, vibrate, or do the moonwalk just because it's finished charging/been plugged into the charger/is running low on charge/feels a disturbance in the force.
 * Basic browser an advantage.
 * Buttons designed for fat fingers instead of ant's legs preferred.
 * WiFi a very distant pipe dream.



I don't care about 3G, voice recording, cameras, bluetooth, external speakers, super bright/high contrast, endorsed by celebrities, or even personalization of background images and menu themes; so long as the default isn't gaudy. If it helps you get a sense of my 'style' and priorities: when I was looking at dedicated mp3 players I was pretty firmly looking at the sandisk sansa clip zip, I'd have to import it as no-one seems to sell it in NZ. But for a similar price to an ipod shuffle I could get twice the inbuilt space plus a microSD expansion slot, and a screen so I could see what I'm doing; in a player not much bigger. Convention and function over a strange 'talk to me' button, and for the same price? Hell yeah.

 

So what do you think geekzone? Do you know of a cellphone that can perform basic functions WELL without the need to be faster than a speeding bullet or win fashion shows?

 

 

Thank you in advance for any hints, suggestions, recommendations, compliments, condemnations, anecdotes, or cat gifs that you feel are a worthy reply to my request.

 -Paul