Motorola Defy – Android-powered & made tough

Motorola Defy Android smartphone - angle shot

Motorola Defy Android smartphone - angle shotMotorola’s next foray into the Android smartphone market is the Defy, a phone with a 3.7’’ WVGA touchscreen, running Android Éclair 2.1. As the Defy launch has rolled across the globe there have been reports that Motorola has mentioned a Q2 2011 upgrade to Android Froyo 2.2.

All the specs are listed below, but the Motorola Defy’s point of difference is that it is slightly ruggedised. It is water, dust and scratch resistant – note that it is not water, dust and scratch PROOF. I don’t state that to disparage the phone, I say it to make it clear that there are limits to the level of ruggedisation. Corning’s Gorilla Glass is used to achieve this protect the phone against the tough life most of us give out phones. In regards to waterproofing, at the press launch it was mentioned that underwater photography with the Defy is not a good move.



The Defy’s CrystalTalk™ PLUS technology will make the phone somewhat easier to use in noisy environments, using two microphones to minimise background noise.

The Defy also carries Telstra’s BlueTick accreditation, meaning it “provides superior handheld coverage in regional and rural coverage areas”.

Motorola Defy release date and price

The Motorola Defy will go on sale in Telstra stores on November 30. It will be available on a variety of plans, the cheapest being $0 upfront on a $49 Next G™ Cap Plan for 24 months, a minimum cost of $1,176. This plan gives you $450 worth of calls and text and 1GB of data.

The Defy will be exclusive to Telstra for three months.

Motorola Defy specifications

  • Bands/Modes: UMTS: 850/2100, GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 7.2 MbpsHSUPA 2.0 Mbps
  • Colour: Liquorice
  • Dimensions: 59 x 107 x 13.2 mm
  • Weight: 118 grams
  • Main screen: 3.7’’ WVGA TFT 16 million colour full touch display, 854 x 480 pixels
  • Operating system: Android 2.1 + MOTOBLUR™ 1.5
  • Battery: 1540mAh
  • Battery life: UMTS TT/SB Time (up to): 360 mins / 219 hrs*
  • Camera: 5 megapixel camera with digital zoom, auto focus and LED
  • Video: Capture/Playback/Streaming, H.264, MPEG4
  • Messaging/web/apps: MMS, SMS, Email (Corporate Sync, POP3/IMAP embedded, Push Email) IM (Embedded – WVIM), Full HTML browser w/ Adobe® Flash® Lite®
  • Memory: Memory: 2GB microSD card pre-inserted into phone, 512MB RAM x 2GB ROM. Expandable up to 32GB.
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDI, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, GPS/aGPS
  • Media player support: MP3, MPEG4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR NB, WMA v9, H.264, 3.5 mm audio jack