Blackberry or Palm phone???

[Vega {★}]

I'm a total newb when it comes to these smart phones!! I just reached my "new-every-two" (a new phone every two years) with Verizon and qualify for some pretty nifty phones for a very very minor fee ($10-$50). I know most people have iPhones, but Verizon doesn't carry them, so PLEASE DON'T SAY IPHONE =P

I can choose from a selection of Palms, Blackberry's, and HTC's though I've never heard of HTC phones (and the Droids are out of my price range, *tear*). The best of the Palms I can get is the Palm Pre Plus, and the best of the Blackberry's I can get is the Blackberry Curve 8530. What do you think??? What do you have and love?

Thanks in advance~

p.s. Let me also add that I don't really care about being on the cutting edge of phone technology. If I did care, I wouldn't be looking at bargain phones =P As I mentioned, I'm a newb when it comes to smart phones. I've had and loved my LG Dare for 2 years now, but I've dropped it a lot so it's pretty scratched up and starting to have a little malfunction here and there. I don't need tons of apps (probably wouldn't get them even if I had the option) or crazy web browsing abilities (costs money to browse web on my plan). Honestly I use my current phone mostly for texting, photos, and occasionally plug in my earphones to listen to music while in a waiting room or something. If I could email from the phone, that might be cool, and maybe take video, but I don't need a crazy 'does-everything' machine! I need a good functional phone with a couple cool additional features.

[Vega {★}]

Thank you everyone for you input!! I ended up going with the Palm Pre Plus!

After reading lots of reviews and watching lots of youtube videos, I felt like it's OS and functionality was much more like the Droid's or iPhone's than the Blackberry (or at least the Blackberry models that were in my price range). I've heard lots of good and bad about both, but the "bad" about Blackberry's have been horror stories or comments about how slow they are, etc etc. and the "bad" about Palm Pre Plus pretty much adds up to "it's not as popular" ...which I could give a crap about since it seems to function at the same level as the Droid in most comparison tests, just doesn't have the brand name people care so much about. Sure, there's less apps for it and whatnot, but I used to have NO apps on my last phone and still did just fine (browsing through the available Palm Pre Plus apps online, there's more than I could dream of!). The Palm Pre is about to made available to other wireless companies soon, so I only see the number of people using one RISING, not dying as people seem to think. Also, everyone who has a Pre loves them, whereas there seem to be many unhappy Blackberry users between here, Facebook, and the other forums I visit.

In any case, the new phone should be arriving tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes after I give it a whirl! Thanks again all!

[John at My Favorite Pinups{★}]

there are a ton of homegrown apps out there and a die-hard user community
since I have one lemme know if you have issues