The Motorola Defy

Soldato
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Does anyone here have the Motorola Defy?

I've order this from t-mobile and look around at a bunch of reviews but was wondering if anyone here actually had one.

I popped into the t-mobile shop today and check the demo device. I've never used android before and very impressed with the OS and the quality of the phone.

The guy in the shop did say that it's running Motorola's interface over the top of android, i'm not sure of the difference.

They also said that they'd been having fun with that phone and had been throwing it down the stairs and so on and it's been ok..they haven't tried the putting it in a glass of water trick yet though.

Anyway, first impression were that it's a nice device, well made and a good size. IT wasn't as bulky as some say.
 
It is a nice device, its surprisingly functional considering the strength of it.

Motoblur (on top of Android) isn't as nice as the Sense UI or even stock Android but its not too bad.

The phone has held up very well in reviews and is certainly the best bet for anyone who is a bit reckless with their phone :p
 
Cracking phone, I'm waiting to see how long it takes Motorola to roll out 2.2 before grabbing one.

First off, it's probably best to remove most of the social networking widgets from the home screen, also try out launcher pro from the market if you don't like motoblur.

Don't forget you can always root and un install the Motorola bloat apps you don't use.
 
Light, robust, quick(launcher pro installed) with a decent 1500mah battery! If only it had froyo it would be an awesome phone.
 
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Does anyone here have the Motorola Defy?

They also said that they'd been having fun with that phone and had been throwing it down the stairs and so on and it's been ok..they haven't tried the putting it in a glass of water trick yet though.

Anyway, first impression were that it's a nice device, well made and a good size. IT wasn't as bulky as some say.
I did think about starting a thread on this subject earlier in the week, but figured nobody would be interested. I've had mine since Monday, and so far it's been pretty impressive. It's my first smartphone since the HTC S730 about three years ago, so I'm not really up to speed any more, but from what I can tell it has all the important features. The waterproof rating seems to be justified, it's been under running water and in the sink more than a few times already without problems.

The display is pretty crisp, multi-touch seems to work as advertised, and call quality is up to scratch. I've not installed many apps on it and I've streamlined the home pages by removing all of the social network stuff, so mine performs very well. No noticable lag in switching between running apps, nor opening new ones. So far it seems to be a well thought out, well made phone. Only time will tell just how robust it is, but my first impression is positive.
 
Interestingly the cnet review complains that the CPU could be faster (isn't the fastest the 1ghz galaxy s, so the defy isn't too far off) and that it sacrifices features for the sake of resilience. Isn't it as feature full as any other android phone?
 
It's the latest TI A8 core so it could run well beyond 1Ghz if needed (The droid 2 globlal runs at 1.2Ghz with the same chip)
Motobloat does slow it down if you've got loads of rubbish widgets trying to update all the time, hence cnet saying it needs a faster cpu :rolleyes:

No idea what 'features' they're talking about either? A camera button? Front facing camera? Apple logo? :p
 
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Not that anyone's interested but I finally got around to trying a demo model... It's shocking... shockingly good :p

Forget the IP67 rating, it's easily the best standard 3.5"-3.7" touchscreen you can buy right now! (including the Desire/iPhone 4 etc :eek:)

Well built, great to hold, very fast (even on 2.1), great screen, excellent battery life and just a superb all rounder. (Motoblurs keyboard is also the best I've used on android) £250 sim free is just the icing on the cake.

I'll be replacing my Desire with one asap! :)
 
Well CPW have offered me a choice of handsets after my Galaxy S has been returned for 3rd time with GPS faults.

This is one of the handsets and if I choose it they say my monthly bill will be reduced by £15 p/m for the same tariff....seriously tempted tbh.
 
^ Try it out and see, it's one of those 'this is actually quite good...' phones (esp if you know you can replace the ugly launcher :D)

How is it better than a Desire? Just the battery?

It just resolves all the tiny niggles, think of it as an iPhone 4/Desire hybrid, without the hype/bling...

The build is more solid (single piece of thick gorilla glass on the front and a very secure rubberised bezel/lockable back)
The battery life was approx 60% better under use, so it should get close to the iP4 when updated to 2.2 (that was just a quick test but some users are getting 5+ days standby with radios/wifi on :eek:)
A cracking IPS display you can use in direct sun light (again it's similar to the ip4 retina display, you loose some resolution but gain size, esp with full screen web browsing etc)

The only downer is Motorolas potentially slow software updates...:( (2.2 will probably be the last update)
 
Looks like a typical 5mp jobbie, reviews generally say still shots are average but has decent video, the 2.2 update could bring 720p.

Here's a good indoors/outdoors test.
 
I still wouldn't consider it better than the Desire though, its decent but not worth swapping for unless you are prone to breaking phones :p
 
Well I gone for one and its been despatched. Will just have to wait and see if it gets here tomorrow.

Goodbye Galaxy S and your ******* crap GPS.
Also my bill has been reduced to £15 pm for 500 mins, txts & 500mb data.

Will report back when I get it.!
 
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