Is a smart phone for me?

Kyougu

So my current phone (A Nokia 3200) is begining to get pretty worn out, and I been thinking about getting a new phone.
One of the phones that really appeals to me is the BlackBerry Pearl. It just seems really sleek, and I like alot of the features it has (mainly web browsing). Also, with a 2 year extension, it comes out to 250, which seems pretty good to me.
Problem is, I never used a smart phone before. I never really spent much on phones before, mainly because I never had the money. Now I'm at a point where I can afford a pretty decent phone. But is it worth it?
Basically, are the features on smart phones worth it to the average joe like myself who would just use it to surf basic websites, and as a phone camera.
Or should I go with another regular phone? The Nokia 5300 Xpress seems nice, and it's 120. Other reccomendations would be nice too.

EDIT: I'm with T-mobile.

Shogun

You are aware that for the blackberry to browse the web and do email and shit you have to pay for a data plan? Blackberry has two options I believe one starting at like $50 and another at $70 or $80 per month. This is on top of your standard T-Mobile bill. You can probably also get a data plan through T-Mobile but the point is for that shit to work you have to have a data plan. That, or don't get a data plan and T-mobile will rape you thoroughly for usage charges.

Doc

http://consumerist.com/consumer/confessions/11-confessions-of-a-tmobile-sales-rep-242720.php

For "Use features to get free stuff," you can probably get a good discount on your phone if you are going to get the maximum data add-on. Usually these can be canceled or changed at any time over the phone.

I'll let you put two and two together on that one.

Jimmy King

Honestly, I don't know that it's worth it. The company I work for is a mobile content distributor, so myself and the people I work with spend more than our fair share of time messing with various phones on the internet.

I personally find even the smart phones with a real keyboard to be a hassle to type much of a url into, partially due to big hands and fingers, etc. Also, the small screen and low speeds (in most areas) tend to make it suck and not be all that useful to most people I know once the novelty wears off.

As to a phone, if you don't mind spending a bit (a lot) more you might find an unlocked Samsung Blackjack (normally a Cingular only phone, I believe). One of the guys I work with really likes his and it seems to be pretty decent from what little I've messed with it. Other than that most of the phones I deal with are crap as we primarily deal with and keep on hand the most common (read cheap and/or free with contract) phones and use an emulator for everything else.