I have a Pearl Flip. When I am simply viewing my messages, I can see previous texts immediately below the newest one. In essence, I can see the thread. When I hit reply, the writing field is so large that it takes up the entire screen. However, if I scroll down, I can see the entire conversation thread.
My friend has a Flip as well and his texting field is much smaller than mine. I've looked around like crazy for the option and can't find it.
Some of the different OS versions have that effect, There's not an option for it.
What horrible news! Is that a bug? Maybe I should update my OS then. So it is safe to assume that my friend's OS differs from mine? We bought the phone at the same store 1 week apart.