Need "crack-berry" advice

[HW_Hack]

I have to admit total ignorance on this area --- I fortunately was never asked / told / forced to be a "user" .... however the principal at our high school made a comment on needing something other than his laptop to monitor emails and respond to critical emails etc.

I mentioned something like the EeePC which at least has a keyboard but he indicated something cel phone / pocket size .....

So please any input from you "users" or those who support "users" what are the best Blackberry models OR some better / equivalent brands. I assume that whatever we get has to be compatible with the cel phone carrier the school prefers ??

Signed -- Ignorance is bliss

[Thrax]

I have a blackberry 8300 and it is singularly the most useful gadget in my entire life. Without a blackberry enterprise server (BES), a domain powered by exchange should forward all received emails in the inbox every 5-15 minutes to your blackberry email address. Outgoing email is routed through the exchange server and sent as though you sent an email from outlook, or another client.

Adding a BES into the mix means that all incoming/outgoing is sent directly to your phone, and your phone is another client in the exchange domain, rather than being an alias to an external blackberry email address.

The largest provider of blackberry service in the US is AT&T. I can't speak fondly of the EDGE network, as it's slow for browsing/media and drops calls more than I would like, but overall I suppose I could say my experience has been okay. If I had to do it all over, I would jump up and down and demand that my blackberry be powered by Verizon, as EVDO is amazing.

The best models are the 8300, 8310, 8320 and the 88xx series. It's up to the buyer to determine what features they need, but I am especially fond of the 8320. It's an amazing phone.

[McBain]

You can get push support every 5 minutes w/o the cost of a blackberry network using sprint....EVDO + cheap data plans ftw.

Just get a WM6 capable phone and sign up for a data plan....