Check out my review of the Moment. There's some good stuff there.
Pretty much every smart phone is capable of syncing with Exchange. You can't sync directly with Outlook by plugging your phone into the computer. There are third party apps available that will allow you to sync calendar/contacts with Outlook but I don't know what they are.
I can't remember how to do it with the Pre. You'd have to check somewhere like the PreCentral forums for a complete answer to that.
If you want an easy and seamless Outlook sync experience then Windows Mobile is really the only way to go.