Okay, thought the folks here might give a little advice....I am switching my service to Nextel shortly, and feel the Blackberry might eventually be the way I want to go, but short term, I don't see the value in 30-40 bucks a month for email and web capability.
If I purchase the blacberry now and just use it as a phone, will it still work like a PDA as far as storage, some program availability, and most important, can it still be synched with my Outlook program on my laptop, or do I need to subscribe to "data" services for that. To be clear, I don't yet see the value in receiveing and sending emails from it, but it would be nice to synch my tasks and contacts on the device.
Any info is appreciated.

Yes you should be able to sync your tasks and calendar fine with the desktop redirector while it's plugged into your PC

Note that you can't SMS from a Nextel blackberry.

Remember, I am new to all this, what is SMS?

I guess you've never owned a cell phone before either.. SMS is Short Messaging Services, allows for text messages of up to 160 characters between cell phones

Don't get a Blackberry get a regular phone. I regret getting the 7520. No SMS, no camera, no multimedia capabilities, I can do more on my Palm.

I love my Blackberry 7520. Since you didnt do SMS messaging you wont miss it. If you want custom rintonbes dont get a BB. If you dont know alot of people on nextel dont go with it becuase the greatest thing of Nextel is the DC (direct connect). If you buy the 7520 from Nextel they are not going to let you just use it as a phone they will make you hook up the data service.

^
Agreed. Nextel is NOT the best service provider.

I have no issues with Nextel at all I have been for the most part very satisfied. I have had worse issues with Verizon and cingular so its just what you like.