Well I went into carphonewarehouse to look at the Samsung Galaxy S II and to find out if they could give me the same deals I can get direct from o2 but without having to have all the o2 branded crap on it, and they can. I usually get my phones from there anyway thats where I got my blackberry from.
They can give me a fully unlocked phone for free with no network branding on at all. I also had a play with the phone and downloaded the user manual and had a look to see if I can find a replacement app for Pocketday that I use with my Blackberry and I can get a free one and it would also let me sync with ACT via WIFI instead of having to use USB or Bluetooth also because of the size of the screen I could read my kindle books on it.
I have also investigated the push email thing and as a few have pointed out I could use a 3rd party app to constantly check my email for me not as good but better than nowt, and I looked at the keyboard and it turns out you can install all sorts of different keyboard apps because I dont like touch keyboards particulary if they are an iphone one

but that maybe a way around it.
So I havent totally ruled anything out yet
