In about a week I'm going to trade in my Motorola W490 for my first smartphone. I am considering the Pearl Flip. I don't use my phone for business, so it's not like I have to keep up with my e-mail or anything, so I'm just not up for shelling out $30-$35 a month for a data plan. What I really want is to be able to check my e-mail and do my facebooking after work (I work on a campus with Wifi), and on Austin's WiFi bus system. Also, the space that I work in has no cell reception, but does have wifi, so the ability to receive texts and calls over wifi appeals to me.

I have a non-gmail email address hosted by gmail, and I don't care if I check my e-mail with the browser or through an email client. I want to facebook, and I want to keep my music and podcasts (currently I get my podcasts from iTunes) on it.

THE QUESTION:
Will any of these abilities be hampered by using wifi only? Can any problems be fixed with software? What additional software might I need? Is this a good purchase for my needs?

Thanks!

If you have Tmobile US, you should be able to use UMA to do what you want just fine. I have basically no cell signal at home and use UMA almost exclusively even when I do have a cell signal and wifi. The data services just work so much faster.

Calls and sms will work no matter what plan you are on. If you do not have BB Email service, then your data services are going to be more limited, but you can still do what you want to do, just not as easily.

What services might I have more trouble with? Do you know of any software (other browsers, etc.) that would help me get along without the BB plan?

Wirelessly posted (Tmo's cheapest BB customer)

For wifi browsing, the BB broswer should work fine. But I've heard that sometimes the browser is not available without the data plan. That's not a big issue, but you could look into a great alternate browser, Opera Mini. A lot of users here have had good experience with it.

Thanks everyone for all the help so far!

Yes, it's the browser that can be problematic. There's an old, long thread that may be worth a read:

http://www.blackberryforums.com/wifi...n-cant-do.html

My phone's browser will work over wifi without my sim card, but I already have the right service books on it since I have a data plan. You may have to do something to get the service book like call Tmobile or add a data plan for a day. Something like that.

The gmail app is very nice if it will work for your account. The only problem is it only installs over the air, so you'll have to get the BB browser to work to install it.