For my first smart phone what should I get?

I've never had a smart phone, but have wanted one forever, but I kind of need one soon. I am starting nursing school, and apparently their is an app that would keep me from having to buy a lot of supplemental textbooks, you can download it to your phone if you have a smart phone, and the nursing instructors seem to be all for it. You can carry the phone with you, were as with traditional textbooks, that might be difficult. Anyways my question is for my first smart phone what should I buy (most likely in AT&T's network). I was think Blackberry Torch or iphone or something else, but I don't know, I live out in the boonies, and we don't always get 4G signal, and I know nothing about smartphones so any help would be greatly appreciated :)).