Motorola's tough 'DEFY' - a DEFyPhone?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 23 November 2010 23:58

Your IT - Mobility

The first Android phone with Telstra's Blue Tick for better rural and regional coverage, and the first to be water, dust and scratch resistant, Moto's defiant DEFY sports a 3.7-inch multi-touch screen yet is still smaller than an iPhone while blending a more polished version of Android 2.1 enhanced with MotoBlur 1.5 for a more pleasurable Android experience.

If there's one thing that the Android OS has done, it has been to level the playing field for manufacturers, giving those who want it an iPhone-esque experience that can be customised and improved in ways that never worked properly with Windows Mobile 6.5 and would never be allowed by Apple as it doesn't license its Mac OS X or iOS technologies.

It has revitalised Motorola, who after years of smartphone successes including the Star Tac and the Razr, was then lumbered with large-screen stylus based Symbian UIQ phones, endless Razr iterations, and adventures in Windows Mobile 6.x, but was then left without its own finger-friendly touch-screen OS.

Android OS has been Motorola's saviour, something it has improved through its own work and contributions back to the base code. Motorola has also created its own 'Motoblur' UI to enhance the end-user Android experience.

Motoblur integrates your social networking contacts and messaging, helping you to prioritise who you hear from and to help you organise your socially connected life as a user of services such as Facebook, Twitter and others.

Motorola says it 'makes it even easier to manage all of your emails, messages and social updates in one place, with the additions of filtering, resizable widgets, added corporate security and a versatile battery manager.

But one of the standout features of the Defy is its' measure of toughness or ruggedness, far beyond regular smartphones without actually looking like it.

Motorola does warn that the Defy isn't waterproof, so don't go submerging it in water for extended periods or take it diving with you to send tweets or take photos beneath the seas.

However, it IS water, dust and scratch resistant, which we saw demonstrated with the Defy placed in a glass of water and a glass of beer without damage, as well as being splashed with water, and even a video of a Motorola employee answering the phone in the shower.

That's not something you'd do with any other smartphone without it being encased in some bulky, specially designed waterproof enclosure or you'd likely quickly damage it.

Although Defy comes with Android OS 2.1, instead of Android OS 2.2, Motorola has enhanced its Android 2.1 build to deliver some of the 2.2 feature set.

Specs and more on page two, please read on!