I have not heard of any Blackberrys being slow with email, unless it's network related. The 8900 model indicates that you are probably with ATT or T-Mobile. As for battery life, both the TouchPro2 and the 8900 have similar battery capacity (with the TP2 having 1500mAh, vs 1400 for the 8900). Both are relatively new handsets with the latest features. The only other things you would gain on the TP2 are the full-screen display, larger keyboard. But, the TP2 has Windows Mobile OS 6.1, and if you really want to try or switch to an HTC device, you may want to wait until WinMo 6.5 or 7.0 where the UI shows promise to be closer to the iPhone,
HTC Hero,
Palm Pre, etc.