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As you can imagine, it's at this point the BlackBerry Storm 2 comes into its own – messaging is just a dream. We'll get one of the major negative points out of the way first – although Facebook Connect is provided, there's no support for other social-networking applications in terms of direct messaging.
It might sound petty, but the likes of the Motorola Dext have shown us how awesome it is to be able to send messages directly from the contacts menu.
But enough of that negativity, things are all looking up from here. The main thing to note is that the Storm 2 is built on a strong core of BlackBerry Enterprise connectivity – providing your company supports it, email set up is as easy as entering your address and password (and perhaps a few extra details depending on your server).
It is a little bit of a hassle having to register online to set the account in motion, but once that's done it's plain sailing.
Similarly, if you're on an Exchange platform, you can access corporate email that way – but you'll have to download a pretty pricey piece of software to do so.
Messaging is a breeze on the Storm 2 though, thanks to a radically overhauled text input system with BB OS 5.0. Basically you can enter text as fast as you like, and if you're working with commonly used words the intuitive text auto-correct will take over nicely.
This means you can really speed up on typing things out, and emailing becomes a breeze. We're not fans of the SurePress screen as we've stated above, as even the simple task of entering the message editor is a bit difficult by having to click here, there and everywhere.
But once you get going, entering text is blindingly simple. We're currently also using an Acer NeoTouch, based on Windows Mobile, and trying to enter text with any degree of accuracy is terrible. We then switch to the BlackBerry Storm 2, and it feels like the difference between swimming in treacle and pure spring water.
Add to that the fact it's super easy to copy and paste (simply tap the screen and grab the bars that appear left and right to select) and we can see why RIM remains king of the message. You can also search for messages from a certain contact simply by holding down on their name – the search quickly returns all options.
If texting isn't your thing and you don't fancy a spot of corporate email, it's similarly easy to add in your personal email as well, with the same simple email and password options used to create the account.
In fact, you can add up to 10 email accounts on the Storm 2, so you'll never run out of places to receive all that important electronic mail from. In fact the only downside is there's nowhere to store a pigeon, as it seems all other forms of communication are catered for.
The messaging centre allows you to view all your received mail at once – be it Facebook, SMS or email. You can also choose to start an IM conversation from here too, with the likes of Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger included in the box.
As you can see, messaging is a real winner on the Storm 2, and far better than the original thanks to auto-correct and a multi-touchscreen, which lets you type on two areas at once. If RIM could have thought of another way of entering text without the SurePress, we would have preferred it, but we guess there will be some fans out there.
