[JavaBrewer]

+1 Android with swype. My first smartphone was a BB and I thought the physical KB was good until I jumped ship. It took me about 10 minutes to get comfortable with swype and now I can't imagine trying to email/text without it.

Battery usage is a mixed bag. I have 5 email accounts linked to my phone. Battery would not last a full day when configured to pull every 10 minutes. I modified account settings to pull on request only and my phone now goes all day with about 50% battery left. Big difference. That is with WiFi enabled and GPS turned off.

Definitely find a phone running 2.2 or higher.