OP I can understand your situation, I similarly rely on my mobile to retrieve work emails, not that it's essential to my work but it's convenient and useful for me to keep up to speed throughout the day away from the office and to be prepared before i reach the office. I am fortunate in that I can use the n900 to connect to webmail and therefore can get my emails that way. It was one of the first things I checked for, and if it wasn't possible I would have returned my n900 and looked for something else also. I hope your next handset will prove more suitable for you.