Motorola DEFY Review

Welcome to the Motorola DEFY review.  The DEFY was released in late 2010 into a very crowded Android based phone market. It’s selling point was the ruggerised case and screen and a slightly faster 800Mhz CPU than the base models but slower than the top end models.

It has been awhile since we reviewed a Motorola phone because since they started using the Android operating system they are basically the same apart of hardware variations.  The once industry leading Motorola used to make really cool looking phones all the latest technology – hampered by the short sighted networks installing crap software that often made them poor to use.  We can be thankfully for Apple for releasing us from the phone networks – unfortunately that meant that we are now being locked into the Apple ‘network’. We like freedom so there must be a better solution our there – perhaps Android OS is our savior?

Android in its standard form works really well but again Motorola has not understood that tinkering with the core of the operating system simply does not result in a better experience! Why couldn’t they just put an App in? Maybe it was a model we tried but we came away thinking that the DEFY was not sluggish but more a tad unresponsive. Overall though it feels faster than the 600Mhz CPU but definitely slower than the 1Ghz. Th model comes with Android 2.1 so your missing a few features most will not miss.

The DEFY can be purchased for any 3G network including Telstra 850Mhz NextG however outright DEFYs can also be bought for other networks. So before buying make sure you know which network it will

In terms of construction the DEFY is light and solid but lacking any design flair. The ruggerised case feels good enough and hard wearing to carry around without extra protective cases but being completely honest it looks like a cheap phone. If you’re clumsy, then its water and scratch resistance will help you out but you may need a case to hide it from the public. BTW the publicity pictures makes the phone look better than it actually is.

There is nothing else exceptional about the DEFY but for the unnecessary Motoblur application which is annoying. We couldn’t get it work properly for your information, some updates just wouldn’t happen. Seriously Motorola, get your act together and put in a turn off button. If Motoblur does work it’s still less useful than the dedicated apps or the web browser versions for Facebook, Twitter and other types of social networking accounts. Other than that the phone works as expected

In the end we didn’t want to write up too much more because we were already let down by the lack of any improvement to the interface compared earlier models.  It is the only ruggerised Android which we’ve seen to date so this is the key selling point. However a decent case will make any other touchscreen closely match the DEFY.

Overall only gave the Motorola DEFY a passing grade. Sure it does everything OK but that’s it. We felt that the company wasn’t even trying when it sent this one out to the public.

Specifications

• Motorola DEFY
• Network
  Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900
  Dual-band 3G 850/900/1900//2100
• Design
  Touch screen
• L107 x W59 x D13.5 mm
  Weight 120 grams
• Display/s
  3.7inch TFT 480 x 852
• Camera
  5MP Auto focus LED Flash
• Video Camera
  640 x 480 pixel main video camera 30FPS
• Connectivity
  Bluetooth V2.1
  Wi-Fi
  Micro-USB
• CPU
  800Mhz
• Memory
  Up to 2 GIG available to user
  MicroSD up to 32Gig
• Ring tones
  ACC, MP3, vibration and others
• Features
  A-GPS
  Accelerometer Sensor
  Ambient Light Sensor
  Compass
  JAVA Apps
  Music and Media player
  Organiser/Calender
  SMS, MMS, IM, Email
  JAVA MIDP 2.0
  FM radio with RDS
  Speaker Phone/Hands free
  3.5mm AV/headset
  Custom 3.7V 1540mAh
  Up to 9 days Standby
  Up to 6 hours Talk Time
• Price history
  Under $488 AUD 2011 (Outright)