I'm in the same boat for wanting real buttons/keyboards.
I'm going to upgrade to whatever Sprint offers for WP8 (if I stay at all..), and I'm going to miss the Arrive's keyboard dearly.
EDIT: About Excel, it is somewhat usable. There were far more functionality in the WM versions. Nowadays, I just create the spreadsheet with formatting on a desktop and upload to Skydrive, before pulling it back down to my phone. I used to create spreadsheets on WM. Too basic on WP version, so I don't bother with it anymore.
I agree. Excel went backwards big time from Windows Mobile 6.5 to Windows Phone.
On the arrive with Windows Phone7 my key board is all but useless for navigation to different cells. On windows phone cannot edit XLS spreadsheets, must be XLSX. Formatting and other options are not as easy to get too either.
So far in the month I have had the arrive I am more disappointed than happy with the switch.
Like better with arrive than windows mobile 6.5 TouchPro2:
1. Better email with multiple exchange account support.
2. overall faster.
3. Live tiles, (nice but not deal breaker)
Better on TouchPro2
1. Excel all around better. Can navigate with arrows and edit and save in either old or new file format.
2. Navigation in general. Very little need to touch screen with fat greasy finger..
3. Big clock and weather on home screen.
4. Rss Hub aka NewsBreak. I cannot find equivalent app that does all it did on WP7
5. Making phone calls. Just start typing and contact pops up. Windows Phone 7 added unneeded steps.
6. File explorer....
7. Works as USB Hub. I can connect to my Car stereo with usb cable and search and play all music and podcasts from car stereo all while charging my phone. (My arrive will not even charge from car stereo and screen says "No usb storage available"
Don't get me wrong, Microsoft did some nice eye candy with Windows Phone and there is stuff to like. Just overall they broke more than they fixed...