| BlackBerry is a good choice. I got one a few months ago and am happy with it. The interface is easy to move through and I set up an icon for my gmail and yahoo mail. Very easy to do. If you are going with sprint, you get a sprint.blackberry.net email address also. The desktop and media manager software is pretty good and easy to follow; and there are tons of apps both pay and free online for BlackBerrys.
I'm not sure if it changed with the $99 unlim plan, but when I got it, I was told I needed the BlackBerry data plan. It is basically all inclusive, unlim data, text, pic mail(through email), and navigation (blackberry has its own, but sprint also offers the service) for $30; With my old plan of $40 for 1000 min and unlim N&W. total $70 plus taxes.
Just a bit of advice. If you are getting a BB phone, make sure you play around with it a lot within the grace period to return the phone and make sure you will have no problems. After about 4 weeks with my BB Pearl, the roller ball started to become a little unresponsive sometimes. I didn't get sprint's warranty plan and they wanted to charge me to fix it. | 
