The Motorola DEFY is billed as a “slim, pocketable Android smartphone” by Motorola, but the key to this handset is its durability and rugged construction while remaining lightweight and powerful.
Motorola’s DEFY smartphone comes equipped with everything that one expects from a modern ‘high performance’ smartphone. Packing a 3.7-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, microSD slot, Bluetooth, GPS, 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, WiFi as well as support for Telstra’s NextG network into a device that weighs only 118 grams.
Comparing the Motorola DEFY to the current benchmark for Google Android mobile phones in Australia, the HTC Desire, shows the DEFY to be a competent performer, with its slightly slower CPU (800Mhz vs 1Ghz in the HTC Desire) with comparable performance in day to day usage, loading web pages and apps in an instant. Motorola’s ‘MotoBLUR’ user interface layer on top of Android is a minor complaint, but this can easily be turned off for a cleaner, less cluttered experience.
There are however, two use cases where the Motorola DEFY shines, both related to the device’s durability.
“Motorola DEFY is dust proof and water resistant protecting you from life’s little challenges like a sudden rain shower, spilt drink, or dropping your phone in the sand. It also features a large, resilient display that has outstanding protection against scratch damage. ”
You’re a tradesman/woman
If you spend a significant time out in the elements, the scratch and water resistant design (note: the Motorola DEFY is guaranteed to be water resistant only, not water proof) will overcome the need to replace the screen on your iPhone every time you drop it on a worksite. The Motorola DEFY’s antenna is among the best in breed, achieving full Telstra ‘blue tick’ certification for reception in areas (like the bottom of a cave for example) where other phones fail to find a signal.
You’re a business owner looking to give your staff smartphones
Let’s face it, your staff wont treat a phone you give them to use for business as well as they would their own personal phone, for this, the rugged design of the Motorola DEFY comes into its own, no more replacing the mobile phones of your staff every time they accidently drop it in the carpark at work, the DEFY is likely to withstand that sort of accidental abuse with ease, all while syncing their work email to their phone on the go.
While the Motorola DEFY only comes equipped with Android 2.1 out of the box, it does sport some features included in Android 2.2 including using the phone as a mobile WiFi hotspot if you need to connect your laptop to the internet while on the road, this comes into its own, you don’t even need to carry a cable around a USB cable to get online.
So is the Motorola DEFY the ultimate business smartphone?
It will depend on your own use case, however if your business is able to tap into the Google ecosystem or supports email sync through exchange to Android phones then the Motorola DEFY will provide your employees with everything the less rugged smartphones on the market will offer, with the added bonus of being handed back by the employee should they quit intact and without any damage due to ‘accidents’ on the behalf of employees.
The Motorola DEFY is available to business customers through Telstra Business on a $49 or higher Mobile Cap plan for 24 months with no additional handset repayments.
