The lack of a physical keyboard rules it out for me

I used to have the same opinion.

Until I found Swype keyboard. Since I tried it, I had no problem switching to non-qwerty phone. Give it a try.

Can you walk down the street while typing a SMS message or entering a street address without looking at the phone? That's pretty much my "is a soft keyboard good enough" test.

Actually, with swype, yes I can. (I have to look at the beginning of input, but I do that on my 8800 too). Vastly better than a regular soft keyboard.

"Audio / headphone jack 3.5mm"

I thought the same, but they updated it