I've got the BB Bold, fully 3G so its not bad at using the internet, I've even posted on here with it before now !!!
Email is great but you also get your spam straight away too. I dont really use the calender very much and the apps aren't much cop. Battery lasts all day but needs charging every night - I use a fair bit of bluetooth between jobs. Bluetooth, WIFI and GPS is constantly switched on so I cant grumble really.
I'm on Orange so I use the orange sat nav app to get around but this really chews up the battery so I'd recommend a car charger.
I've had the old HTC Touch Diamond and it was crap in comparison. BB takes a bit of getting used to but once you do you will love it.
The only alternative I would consider is an Iphone but I'd be concerned about 1. The battery lasting long enough, 2. The screen getting damaged and 3. The extra cost I've heard about for push mail charges from Apple.
It depends what you want from a phone. I have a camera for photos, Ipod for music and a BB for communicating.