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The Motorola Dext also brings combined messaging to the phone with MotoBlur, on top of the contacts synchronisation mentioned earlier.
Users don't just get a normal inbox when using the phone – they see all messages stored in a universal inbox where Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, text messages and emails are all lumped together.
From there users can reply in any way they want to, meaning if somebody sends you a Facebook message but you want to get hold of them quickly, a text or direct Tweet might work better and is within easy reach.
However, the downside here is the same as in contacts – if you haven't spent hours linking the contacts together you just have to go through the normal channels of messaging, scrolling for a contact before sending the message. It's no great hardship; it just takes the sheen off the experience a little bit.
We've already spoken of our affection for the QWERTY keyboard, but when it comes to entering text the on screen version is equally as good.
Accuracy is good, and the word prediction is as scarily good at selecting the word we're after as the iPhone – which is high praise indeed for such a feature. However, one problem is the build quality – the mane flexes and wobbles badly under the finger when using the onscreen effort, which is most disconcerting.
There's a variety of messaging options on the phone beyond the MotoBlur and the Universal Inbox, with Google Mail making its usual appearance on the Dext. But users can also synchronise another account easily to the phone through the email function, and add in Exchange support through a corporate email server as well.
It's important to remember that underneath all of this MotoBlur excitement is Google Android pushing things along nicely with its 1.5 Cupcake version. Simple tricks like threaded conversations can be dressed up how you like by the different brands, but the fact is it's easy to see what you've been saying with someone, and adding an item such as sound or a picture is only a couple of clicks through the menu system.
The Motorola Dext is capable of many messaging options, and it's a credit to the MotoBlur platform that you can interact with your friends so easily. We like being able to Facebook message our friends from the menu, but it's been done by INQ on a £60 phone, so we're not sure it's that exciting a move any more.
But social networking addicts will certainly love the feature, and Motorola has got it working well, so we have to commend the company for that.
