It works fine as a phone. I've used both the Treo 650, as well as RIM 7230, 7510, 7520, 7290 in enterprise deployments as both email/PIM and telephone (sole replacement). The BB works fine as a phone. You coworkers are just being overly picky, which may or may not give you the straight scoop. I have no problem using a 7510 as my sole phone. The 7510 is bigger than your 7290.
One thing is you might spring for the extended battery if you use the phone alot or have longer conversions. Especially on iDEN (read: Nextel, Telus).
Personally I like having one device that has all of my contacts instantly synchronized between my work accounts, so I can email, telephone, or schedule (and take notes) all from one device. Concentrate instead on what it does well. After using a BB, I *can't* go back to a regular phone. It just works too well.
BTW, the ear piece on my BB is so loud, I cannot stand using it at max volume. It is simply too loud. Ha!
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