I just got back from a 3-week project in Malawi.
While I was there, the Motorola RAZR I was using died, so I had to get another phone. I have Sprint here in the US, so I wasn't looking to buy a full-on 3G Phone or Blackberry or anything like that. Just something cheap that would make/take calls and maybe send text messages.

For MK5500(about $35) I got a Vodafone 125(actually made by ZTE from China) that is probably the most perfect just-a-phone I've ever used.
It doesn't sync with Exchange, doesn't play MP3s, doesn't have games or web-access, it's just a phone. But the battery lasts for days, has the most ridiculously easy to use interface I've ever seen on a phone and is practically throw-away cheap.

For being the complete and total gadget and feature-hound that I am, I'm amazed how much I like the darn little thing.

The team I was with was shocked at how much I gushing about it. Isn't it embarassing and limiting, perhaps even a bit emasculating, to have to use such a thing when I'm used to something feature-rich like RAZR or Treo ?
The ZTE-125 isn't even *color*

My response to them was "No, not really. For being just-a-phone, it's nearly a perfect object. The phone most people in North America and Europe have have all sorts of features on them, but either the carriers have deliberately hobbled or disabled them or they're hidden behind the most awful excuses for a user interface I've ever had the displeasure to wade through and are annoying to impossible to use".

I'm back now in SF and back on my Treo 650 and it's okay. I certainly make heavy use of the web browser and the SMS capability and the GPS tracking software I have loaded on it, but I'm definitely keeping my ZTE for travel to places that use (real)GSM. It was a steal and it just works.

It would be interesting to hear from people who've also acquired phones/gadgets not necessarily aimed at Western/First World consumers.