Upgrade to Verizon Pearl or wait for unconfirmed Curve?

Verizon Blackberry Pearl 8130 I have had my Treo 650 on Verizon Wireless for over two years now and need a replacement. I am eligible to upgrade with the new every two and would like to get a new smartphone but my choices are slim as usual. It looks like Verizon is set to launch the Blackberry Pearl 8130 early November. I was a little skeptical about getting a Blackberry but I have lost all faith in Palm delivering an awesome new Treo with the Palm OS.

I need a new phone bad, not because I don’t like my Treo anymore, but because I am just getting tired of lugging the thing around. The iPhone would definitely be one of my top choices, especially since I am a Mac user, but I am unwilling to switch to AT&T for many reasons, most being obvious.

If I do go with the Pearl, it will be nice to go from a big Treo to a much smaller device, but I know I would miss having a full QWERTY keyboard. If the Curve was coming out at the same time, I would most likely go with the Curve because of the full keyboard, but I cannot wait any longer for a device that is only rumored to be coming to Verizon. I will not be using the Blackberry for a lot of email, but I do text a fair amount. My favorite things about the Treo are the Calendar, SMS, DocsToGo, Tasks, and Memos. The one thing I am hesitant about is the Blackberry’s not being touch screen which was essential to me when entering and editing text in the Palm’s calendar among other things. But I am sure with time, I will get used to navigating the Blackberry quickly with the trackball.

I would like to be able to sync all my info seamlessly with most importantly iCal and Address Book. Up until now, I have still been syncing my Treo with my old Windows desktop to save myself the headache of syncing it with the Mac. For Blackberry’s, it looks like my two software options for syncing would be PocketMac or The Missing Sync. After doing some research on the Blackberry and Crackberry forums, I found out that both have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to syncing and neither is perfect (at least yet). I am not too excited about most likely having to do a lot of trial and error to get everything to sync up correctly.

I will continue to keep an eye out for rumors and updates on the possibility of the Curve on Verizon and depending on the sources, I will make a decision once the Pearl is out.

Update: I bought an iPhone.