Motorola RAZR V3 -- Falling Apart After Only Nine Months

I bought my Motorola RAZR V3 just 9 months ago, and it’s already falling apart.  It will die inexplicably and refuse to start up for hours at a time, the battery life is horrible (getting about an hour of talk time at the most lately, even after buying a new battery which set me back 50 bucks), and just today the volume buttons on the side decided to reverse themselves (i.e. the up button lowers volume, and the down button turns the volume up). 

This is the second Motorola phone I’ve had that has gone bad in less than a year…the 2 Nokias I had prior lasted over 2 years each.  Thankfully I have a backup cell I can use (just swap out the SIM card and I’m up and running…one of the few things Cingular has going for their service), but it’s still a total PITA.

The thing I really wonder about is that both of the Motorola's were flip phones, whereas the Nokias were candy bar style phones…do flips suffer from the same symptoms as laptops?  Opening and closing them constantly wears them out faster than candy bar style?  The other problem is that I really like the phone.  Hello another RAZR?  Hello SLVR?  Hello non-flip phone?  Buying 2 cell phones in less than 2 years isn’t really my idea of a good time...