If you're with Verizon, I would recommend the Palm Pre Plus. I have it with Sprint and love it. My wife has an android based phone too (HTC Hero) and she like hers as well. "Android by Google" = "Windows by Microsoft" for the most part.
What I like about the Pre is Palm's operating system (again, think Windows). It lets you keep multiple programs open at the same time, and just slide them off the screen without closing them. Say you're texting someone and need to write a phone number in the text, but need to look it up in an email you got in your gmail account. Well you don't have to close the text, open your email, write down the number, then reopen the text. You can leave it open while you go to your email.
Think of it like minimizing something on your desk top computer. You can have Word, Excell, Internet Explorer, and iTunes all open at the same time on your computer...you just shrink one to the bottom of the screen, but you don't actually close it. It's still there when you pull it back up.
Anyway, it's useful. There have been plenty of times that it's come in handy. I'll be texting someone, need to get directions off google maps for them, and then also get an incoming call. I don't have to stop doing any of those actions....they all work at the same time, staying open simultaneously.
Speaking of google maps...it's very useful on the Pre. I was in Dallas one weekend and needed a hotel. So I opened google maps (with GPS it pulls up the area around you, and you're a little blue dot on the map that moves as you move). I typed in "hotel", and it shows all the hotels around me. Then I touch the hotel on the map and it pulls up its address, phone number, and customer reviews from the internet. Then I touch the phone number and it just starts dialing the number. It was the easiest hotel search and booking I've ever done. Took 2 minutes from car.
It also links everything together. You can have one inbox on your phone where emails, facebook messages, Outlook, etc all go. Same with contacts. If I pull up a friend in my contacts list, it shows their multiple phone numbers, facebook info, email addresses, etc. In fact, if they are signed into gmail, there is a green light and i can start chatting with them in their gmail chat without having to do anything (I've never done it, but you could if you wanted).
Anyway, to me, it's very intuitive, very easy to use, and very useful. Also, it's a full size touch screen, but has a small slide out keyboard for texting and typing. I prefer that in a big way to typing on a touch screen.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5129&changingCompletedOrder=