Please convince me to buy a Touch Pro!

[gatordawgs]

I will be getting my first smartphone in the next month (on the Alltel network now; will be switched to Verizon whenever the transition finishes). After much research, I've narrowed down my choices to the BB Curve 8330 and the Touch Pro. The Touch Pro, for me, is currently $200 more than the BB.

I am a self-employed writer, with the possibility of moving into a more business-oriented career field.

My primary uses will be: phone, email, text messages, internet and some Word/Excel (editing files I create on my PC). I MUST be able to attach PDFs to emails, and I MUST be able to send emails from my existing Roadrunner POP3 email account (via Outlook) using the phone.

I would like the ability to create and assign my own specific ringtones to contacts, but since I don't do it now it's not a must.

I REALLY love the look and feel of the HTC when I've played with it at the Alltel store, but it's hard to get a true feel for a phone when you've got a sales associate hanging all over you.

All I know is that's it's got a "purty mouth" (cue the dueling banjos), and I could totally see rocking my fantasy football draft by pulling out the Touch Pro to run my spreadsheets -- as opposed to the beat-up binder I've been using for 5 years. And that's cool, but is it $200 worth of cool?

I am not as tech-savvy as many of you are, so I won't be writing code for my phone to improve its functionality. I am, however, more than competent at following directions to fix computer problems; therefore, I'm fairly confident that I could install 3rd party software and/or patches/fixes, so long as I have clear documentation.

Disregarding cost for now, my primary concerns about this phone are as follows:

Stability of WM 6.1 -- I've read a lot about WM phones locking up and needing a complete reboot. True?

I've been told that WM 6.1 won't actually send messages from my RR account; I would need to "link" through Gmail or some web-based portal to send email (this is from an Alltel sales rep, so I don't completely believe what they say). True? If it matters, we do leave our home computer on almost all the time.

Unlike many, I'm not worried about the battery life as I plan on having a spare whichever phone I go with (I'm really bad about letting my phone go almost dead before I charge).

What I need is a phone that will do the basics (phone, text, email, web) out of the box, and allow me to slowly develop the skills to take advantage of all the extra features. So, is the Touch Pro a better phone for ME than the BB?

Thanks in advance to all who respond.