Don't even consider a blackberry for general use... the Apps are limited and *expensive* compared to the 30,000 apps in the Android Market, and about 20,000 of those are *free*...
The Hero is a good phone, I had it for about 2 months before leaving Sprint (but of course I won't advise that since you said not to... LOL )
I also had the moment for a couple weeks... stay AWAY from that dog... (Samsung did a half-baked job on the phone, and took FOREVER to fix some SERIOUS problems on it... I would not trust Samsung far enough to let them change a cat's litter box after that fiasco.)
I'm certain Sprint will be getting a new Android phone or two in the next couple months, but I just haven't been following much Sprint news lately... If i remember right, I saw something last week about the HTC "Legend" possibly heading to Sprint - I want to say it was packing a 1GHz snapdraggon processor...
I would suggest browsing a few of the Android sites like http://phandroid.com or just doing a Google for something like "Sprint Android Rumor" (without the quotes) to see if you can catch some scuttle on it... Boy Genius Report also covers Android happenings and rumors pretty well, you might check that out.
I wouldn't really hesitate recommending the Hero at all (since it will be getting Android 2.1 in the next month or so) but if you are like me, you'd hate to get it and find out that a new "twice as fast" phone is coming out in 5 weeks, just a week after your 30 day return period is up...
