I set up two new Blackberries with the BIS 2.0 account today (both on Cingular's service), and they seem to work just as quickly as 1.8. I deffinitely dislike not being able to see the inbox online, but otherwise it seems to be ok.
Both accounts are forwarding to their
![[email address]](?emailimage=d5dd1bcd78b27915db491500c09b67f2)
accounts, so I can't attest to how quickly it POPs an account.