Well, I agree with the battery life. You've always got to have a charger or a spare battery, otherwise everything gets wiped clean.
Still, I would put up with that. There's always the car charger and extra docking station remedy in case you travel a lot.
Depreciation is an issue with any phone anyway. Nokia's and Sony's fare the worst, because they're only worth half their value in 6 months.
With the PDA smartphones, it takes a full year for you to lose about 40% of the value. The demand is so high, but because prices are seriously high as well, the supply remains fairly stretched, so you can always sell your unit on ebay for a very good price.
Well, all I can say is that I'm a steadfast defender of the XDA series.
I just can't imagine using another kind of smartphone after this, because it would feel like downgrading. I mean, you're paying for possibly the fastest PDA on the market, faster than even the dedicated ones without the ability to double as a tri-band mobile, then throw in the fairly large built in memory, and the expandability for 1GB CF and SD cards... plus an Aux jack like an iPod, the ability to play movies, mp3, wma, etc. A fairly adequate camera, a videocam for video calling, touch screen, voice recorder, video recorder, bluetooth, IR, 3G, GPS/GPRS, WiFi... then you've got pocket excel, word, powerpoint, and then fully functional versions of yahoo messenger and msn, and...
the list goes on and on...
It's a lot of money, but it's a lot of tech for the money.
Also, big points when you take down somebody's number at the pub, especially for business reasons. One "flip'n swivel" and you'll have clients knocking at your door.
