Lots of new phones are capable of email.
I use a Sony Ericsson W810i and use email on it in two different ways.
1) From the Messaging menu (the same place you send text messages), an @vodafone.net email address from Vodafone.
2) Using webmail in the phone's web browser, my @gmail.com email address, which is the same account I have in Microsoft outlook on my laptop and access from Internet Explorer on other computers.
For option 1, it was not easy to obtain the correct settings. When you get the phone, I suggest that you get them to set it up for you in the shop.