Motorola’s MB525 Android smartphone, better known as the Defy, or Motodefy, is another example of how the US handset and tablet manufacturer is rising Phoenix-like from the ashes.
Just 18 months ago, most people had written off Motorola after it failed to keep pace in the smartphone market. Now, though, the company is lining up the hits, both in smartphones and tablets.
The midrange touch-screen Defy is a particularly impressive smartphone — and that’s before you realise you can knock it about, throw it in the bath, and generally abuse it (within reason).
First up is the display: the 3,7-inch screen is crisp and clear, with vibrant colours. It’s so impressive, we assumed it has an Amoled screen, but the tech specs reveal it has a standard liquid crystal display with 480×854-pixel resolution. Next to the popular HTC Desire handset, the Defy’s screen is noticeably more vivid.
The OMAP3610 processor is also snappy as hell and there’s no lag as you flip between screens and pop open websites and e-mails. The phone comes with Motoblur, Motorola’s proprietary interface for Android. Motoblur isn’t bad — clearly a designer who likes minimalism has had a go at it — but it’s not quite as good as HTC’s popular Sense interface.
The keyboard is fantastic, and we found it a snap to type up error-free e-mails and text messages. A “Swype” option allows you to drag your finger along the virtual keyboard, effectively connecting the letters that make up the word want to write, and it intelligently figures out what word you’re looking for. It takes a little getting used to, but once you have the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
A disappointing aspect is that the phone ships with Android 2.1. We’d have hoped it would at least have sported the fresher 2.2 given that 2.3 is already on the market. But it comes with useful software bundled, including a tool to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using the phone’s 3G connection.
Other than Wi-Fi (b/g and the faster n standard), the phone supports 3G at 900MHz (so it will play nicely on Cell C’s network) and the usual bands, as well as Edge and Bluetooth. A nifty additional feature is the support of DLNA, meaning you can stream music and video from supported computers and vice versa.
Voice call quality (yes, it’s a smartphone, but you can still make calls with it) is excellent. The speakerphone, which can be activated during calls, is also very good.
Inside the box are a micro-USB cable and wall charger, a 1 500mAh battery that should deliver a day’s moderate to heavy use (provided you don’t tether using Wi-Fi), and a 2GB microSD card to complement the phone’s 2GB of internal memory.
But it’s the rugged form factor that is the most impressive feature of this phone. Firstly, it’s not as bulky as many ruggedised handsets and weighs just 118g — not much more than many less powerful feature phones.
We dipped the Defy in a swimming pool (see video directly below) but were a bit reluctant to try tossing it onto a concrete floor after we recently witnessed a representative of one of the local mobile operators doing just that and shattering the device’s screen.
Motorola Defy in the drink (via YouTube):
The screen should be strong enough for everyday knocks and bruises, though — it features scratch-proof “Gorilla Glass” — and the micro USB and 3,5mm audio jacks are protected with plastic covers to protect the innards if it’s accidentally – or deliberately, for this review — submerged in water. Unfortunately, the covers protrude from the edges of the device, detracting from its otherwise sleek form factor. Also, closing the USB cover firmly can be a little tricky.
Volume is controlled by an unobtrusive volume rocker on the phone’s upper right and the device comes with a 5-megapixel shooter and LED flash that produce reasonably good images.
For a midrange device — remember, this phone, which costs R4 000 on prepaid, isn’t meant to compete with more expensive phones like the Google Nexus S and HTC’s Desire HD — the Defy is an excellent Android-based smartphone and is another solid product from a company that, not long ago, many people had written off for dead. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral
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