Motorola Defy

“We’ve always known Androids to be friendly creatures. And the Motorola DEFY gives us no reason to think otherwise. The whole rugged thing is purely for self defense – protection from the elements. And the best thing is it’s tough but doesn’t look it. Compact and friendly, young and social, this is a smartphone that’s likely to enjoy strong demand. It looks more and more a smart move from Motorola not to put too much emphasis on ruggedness. After all, why would they want to place themselves in a niche, when they can go for the whole midrange instead?The Motorola DEFY is the right phone for the young – it’s not charging a fortune and is good enough at most of what it does. It’s got good media and a complete connectivity set – the Motorola DEFY will even throw in a couple of surprise perks like a capable music player and the Phone Portal app.It’s a good phone for the price – but obviously not without its flaws. The first thing to consider is the OS release. Though there’s still a good number of droids running Eclair, updates are being rolled out as we speak. Motorola are not committing to any specific timing and that’s doing the DEFY no favor. With Froyo, the phone would’ve been really hard to resist. Next on the list of dislikes, the still camera could’ve been better and video capture is nothing to write home about either. Smart dialing would’ve been welcome too. And still, this here tough Droid is more than just your average durable phone. Good looking, young and social is what Motorola wanted it to be. Surviving a party that has got out of hand is just a bonus.”

“At $99.99 on contract at launch, it'd be easy to write off the Defy as a forgettable midrange device -- after all, Motorola has yet to really prove its muster making decent Android phones that aren't high-end $200 monsters. Happily, this thing is genuinely good. Seriously! We're not going to pretend to like Blur -- we still don't -- but Moto seems to be getting better at making sure it doesn't ruin the phone completely (and we're guessing the fast OMAP3610 core helps, too). Additionally, the fact that we kept forgetting this is a genuinely rugged phone while using it really speaks to Motorola's efforts to keep mass market appeal in mind as they designed it. So hey, you know... if Blur finally sends you over the edge some day, don't expect a softball throw against the wall to end the Defy's life. That's a good thing, right?”

“After having a decent amount of time with the Motorola DEFY, it's quite apparent that it almost afflicted with some kind of personality disorder. On one hand it seems to want to be regarded as a high-end model with its detailed display, but then at another, it wants to be known more for its ruggedness. It just doesn't quite find itself in one specific category as it attempts to encompass all of them – while not fully focusing on one aspect. Granted, it might be nice to see it still withstanding under 3 feet (1 meter) of water, but it lacks push-to-talk to make it a striking option for those looking for a rugged phone. However, when you combine its $100 on-contract price and the above average performance it's able to obtain, you can't go wrong with the Motorola DEFY. And when you look at the competition, there really isn't any other Android phone out there than can live to tell the tale after being exposed and drenched in water.”

“The Defy is easy to use and is a good example of a tough smartphone that should be great news for anybody who spends a lot of time working outdoors—or drops their phone a lot. It's solid but still offers the multimedia services we'd expect from a smartphone.”