Here is a different opinion from me
I used both Nokia and Sony Ericsson in my life. And few of some other brands as well. Nearly 20 I think which were all high end phones. Here is what I can say.
Sony Ericsson is superb for music. There is no phone which can come even closer to the music quality of Sony Ericsson. I had a phone called W850i in the SE Walkman series. It was about ~LKR 50,000 those days but now it is about ~LKR 10,000 I think. I didn't hear that music quality after that from a Nokia phone. However make sure that you don't drop your SE phone. It will either damage or at least scratch the phone. Battery life is so good on all the SE phones I owned.
Nokia is superb in overall phone quality and features. Larger screens than their competitors. Handy look and well built cases has dominated the phone market for many decades now. One of the true reason is that Nokia works even after dropping it few times to hard flow. Battery life was not so good on all the Nokia phones I owned. It can be due to features such as large display, etc...
Another great phone brand which dominates the market is Samsung. I have never used a Samsung yet but I have seen a Galaxy with Android OS which I would love to buy. He bought it for about LKR 65K. However he told me the battery life is not so good with that phone.
Another great brand on sale is Alcatel. This brand is simply superb especially when it comes to battery life. One Touch Easy was my first phone which I bought for about LKR 13,000 in 1998. I have no idea of their new phone models (I heard Sala Enterprises are selling Alcatel now). Someone told me they have one with Android OS which I love the most however he told me that non of them have video call feature (front side camera). Worth to have a look as well.
One of the important thing to consider when you buy a high end phone these days is the OS. According to my knowledge its Android which is going to dominate the market. Android phones (sometimes called Droids) already captured a big potion in the market due to features it offers. There are Nokia (not seen any though), SE, Samsung and HTC brands with Android and I have seen few of them. Simply superb.
As far as I can see, Nokia still dominates the market. Its quality in terms of outer strength, internal mechanism and outlook has never been beaten by any competitor so far. However price is bit expensive but still good stuff are not cheap always
GSparkZ, E5 is a business phone with a small display. It doesn't have front side camera as well. E7 is great in this series. Have a look at N97 mini as well. It's a superb phone. 5800 Navigator Version (not the Express Music version) is a super phone though it is a bit old. It was made to compete with iPhone by Nokia. I would also like to compare with X3, X6 and N8 as well.
