Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The Motorola Atrix 2 supports SMS and MMS messaging, and the IMAP, POP3 and SMTP protocols for email. There's a generic email client for adding your own ISP account, and a Gmail app.
There's a universal search box for finding contacts, and the social networking features are integrated right into the messaging functions - these are as easy to use as those for phone dialling.
The haptics buzz you feel as you type helped to speed up text messaging and emails, although in the portrait view the keys are spaced too close together, and we had some accuracy trouble.
In landscape, the Motorola Atrix 2 worked much better for typing fast memos. The phone uses a predictive text engine that worked reasonably well for guessing words.
Motorola includes the Google Talk instant messaging client, which you can also use for video chats using the front-facing camera. No other IM clients are included as standard, though.
You can use the Google Search system to prompt actions using your voice - say, to call a contact. But the speech system doesn't work for reading emails or text messages to you unless you add a third-party app such as Vlingo.
The Motorola Atrix 2's voice search lacks the sophistication of the Apple Siri voice recognition system where you can perform complex tasks by speaking them - such as setting a reminder to call your wife that triggers automatically when you leave work for the day.
The Motorola Atrix 2 doesn't know who your wife is, nor does it trigger alerts and reminders based on your location - but then again, we have to give Apple something to shout about, right?
