If you wanted to place bets on dogs on track

you used to be able to do it with any WAP enabled phone and they are cheap now but you will pay for the access itself, depending on your contract. I presume you still can use them, though I upgraded.

If you want to access the internet more widely then a smartphone is probably better but will set you back around £200 min I think (more if you go for a higher spec one) or look for something that is free on a contract. The key then is a contract with unlimited web access included of course.

so it depends what you want. you seem to be able to get Blackberries quite cheaply on such a contract now (£15 a month)