Allow me to go on record for saying that there is no such thing as an iPhone killer. Remember when the Samsung Omnia came out and everyone was marvelling at how it was going to destroy the iPhone 3G? Well, it didn't, and that is because all phones that come out after the iPhone did were all copies. Some were good, but mostly were bad, and the Omnia was an example of a bad copy, having to use a stylus to perform accurate touch screen input, pathetic accelerometer sensitivity and a horrifying operating system (Windows Mobile 6.5. Shudder). Google's Android operating system came closest, and in my eyes they are level pegging in the market at the moment, with iPhone having more apps than you can shake a stick at, and the Android having more handsets based off of it than you can pour your Tic Tacs on.
Some forms of media do unfair comparisons with the iPhone and Android, such as the weekly free magazine, Shortlist, claiming that Android handsets have outsold iPhones. That is completely unfair since Apple only make 2 iPhones at a time, a 16GB version and a 32GB version, with a cheaper one based off last generation technology, whereas Android is simply an operating system that is used by many manufacturers as the interface for their touch screen phones.
But enough of my semi-digression here, because this is a review by me, the FatMan88, on Motorola's Defy handset, and by golly is it a great phone by Motorola using Android 2.2. I have always found Motorola phones to be more style over substance. Do you remember the Razr or the Pebl? Great styling for its time, but the interface lacked something, it wasn't as feature packed as you would hope, it was missing a... je nais se quoi. The best comparison I can think of are those movies by Steven Seagal. Many explosions and very exciting, but it lacks the depth and feel of a Bruce Willis action movie. With this phone, Motorola have churned out an amazing phone that sits very comfortably in the middle-range segment of mobile phone users. At the moment, it costs £229 SIM free handset only, which, if I am correct, is directly in the middle ground nowadays when it comes to the latest feature phones on offer. Yet despite the price, it does not skimp, and in fact it is lathered in Single Malt Scotch rather than the Blended Malt for the typical handsets in this price range.
The phone itself comes in a sliding box where a small box/tray slides out the bottom of a larger box like a training coming out of a tunnel. The phone comes with a plethora of leaflets and manuals, with the only accessories being the microUSB cable, the power adaptor and a pair of cheap looking, plastic-endowed handsfree earphones that just surprised me to no end. I guess the price saving had to come from somewhere, but did it have to be from the earphones?
The phone itself can be a mixed bag, but to me it is a very handsome phone, a manly handset that sets it apart from your typical mobile. It is about 1cm thick, bathed in the embrace of the inky darkness of black, and the back of the device is covered in a rubberised layer.
It is about the size of the iPhone 2G, but about half the weight, but it still feels sturdy and well made despite its plastic/rubbery looks. You can see the tough looking hex screws embedded into the sides of the phone to give it that more rugged appearance. At the top of the phone is a power button that sits almost flush with the edge, with a 3.5mm earphone port, covered up with a tabbed rubber plug. To the left is a microUSB port for connecting to a computer or for charging up the battery, again covered up with a tabbed rubber plug. To the right of the phone is the standard volume rocker buttons. The microSD card sits inside the phone at the back next to the SIM card itself, with a red tab to hold the microSD card in place just in case it slides out. Both slots are then covered up by the Lithium Ion battery, before the battery cover goes on top of it to cover up the back. The back cover is very strange, it has these curved edges that need to be pushed down and locked in places with a sliding tab at the bottom, possibly to keep dust and water out. It is tricky at first, but when you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.
When you connect the phone to your phone to a computer, it gets you to install Motorola's Media Link software which allows you to synchronise your phone to your PC to transfer music, videos, etc, just like iPhone and iTunes, albeit uglier. This must be done as well if you wish to perform software updates as it installs the necessary drivers for your phone to connect properly to the PC.
Below is some of my favourite features of this phone and why I regard this phone so highly:
Processor: 800MHz Cortex-A8. The same processor used in the iPhone 4, but slowed down from 1GHz to 800MHz. Slowing it down makes it cheaper, since the CPUs were rated only for stable use at 800MHz. Of course, many people out there have already overclocked it to 1.2GHz (1200 MHz), so it runs faster than even high end single core processing phones such as the iPhone 4. It is very fast, and is something of a mystery how Motorola are able to squeeze this into the phone at this price point.
RAM: 512MB. RAM is basically the desk space available to lay all the work on in order for the processor to process them. Having 512MB of RAM was once thought unprecedented in a handset of this price range, but Motorola has pulled if off here. Some handsets that are supposed to be higher end, such as the Sony Ericsson X10 Xperia, have less RAM, so this is a winning combination for me. It makes applications react much quicker as a result.
Screen: 3.7 inch 854 x 480 Gorilla Glass. A high resolution LCD screen that is fully multi-touch capacitive, and since it is Gorilla Glass, it is scratch and impact resistant. It does lack an Oleophobic layer so it would suck fingerprints from all across the known universe onto it, but otherwise it is bright, vibrant and sharp.
Rugged: This phone is dustproof, water resistant and shock resistant. It was IP67 certified once, claiming that it was water proof, but too many phones were sent back to Motorola as a result of them being water logged, so that claim was withdrawn.
Still, the phone is now called 'Lifeproof' meaning that everyday life impacts and shocks and splashes can be shrugged off by the phone.
Battery life: approx 7 hours talk time and 9 days standby. For a phone with a 3.7 inch screen, this is unheard of. Most of the time, touch screen phones would last 2 days maximum before you have to find a electrical outlet to charge it up, but for this phone it can last far longer than that. Those that used to own Nokias of old and can recall the days when a phone can be left alone and uncharged for 4-5 days at a time, would appreciate this feature a lot, as would I.
Android 2.2. When the phone first came out, it had version 2.1 running on it. It was a good operating system, but it lacked a little in speed and responsiveness. When 2.2 came out for the Defy, the entire handset sped up immensely, and this is a very welcome addition to any phone. Although it isn't the latest operating system of Android, it does bring full Flash capabilities with it to this handset.
Internal storage: 2GB. This handset comes with 2GB of internal memory storage for applications, which today is very generous indeed. You usually are given about 512MB of storage to store your applications internally, which is why Android 2.2 introduced App2SD, where to can transfer certain apps to the microSD card to save memory. With the 2GB internal storage, you do not even have to consider nor comprehend the physics behind App2SD, which makes for an easier all-round experience.
The rest of the phone is pretty much standard when it compares to other phones in the range, such as it only has a 5 megapixel camera lens with a rather weak LED light, but in no way does it hamper the positives listed above in any way.
Those familiar with the Android operating system, or in fact Apple's iOS, will find using this phone very intuitive. The home screen is the same scrolling from left to right to check their home screen icons and widgets, whereas the menu screen houses all the main apps and settings icons for configuring the phone. Touch screen is very responsive, and multi touch works very well, especially in Google Maps. You can flick your finger through the touch screen and it would scroll smoothly at the speed you moved your finger across the screen. There is the occasional lag now and again, but that seems to only occur when I had a few downloads going on in the background. Multitasking is also very good with this device thanks to the generous RAM, so there is hardly much slow down at all. Sound is very good for the internal speaker, it is loud with good treble and the bass can be felt when you hold the phone in your hand. You can feel it tremble within your palm while listening to your favourite tunes.
Instead of a home button like most iPhone clone phones have, this phone has a set of 4 touch sensitive buttons on the phone itself to perform various tasks. These 4 buttons are not part of the software and are actually part of the phone itself, but do not obfuscate the screen or ruin it's aesthetic in any way, and it provides haptic feedback to let you know that it registered the touch.
The bottom left is the menu/options button that brings up a list of options where it can be used. Next to it is the home button, that takes the user to the home screen no matter where they are. Next to that is the back button, that takes the user back a page or back to a previous level depending on where it is used, and finally the search button which is used to activate Google search, or if held down for 3 seconds, activates voice command functionality.
The voice command functionality is actually quite accurate, you just say the action of what you want to do, i.e. Message, then you tell it who you want to message, and then what number you want to use to send the message to. So if I said, 'Message Gary Mobile Number 1', it would bring up a SMS dialogue box with Gary's number as stored in Mobile Number 1 in the recipient field above. Shame it doesn't write out the message for you as well via voice command, as I would find that to be a great handsfree experience.
Motorola has thrown in many of it's own widgets in with the phone which can be very useful. There is a News widget where you can apply your favourite RSS feeds or website links so that you can capture all the latest news from your subscriptions, or you can check the weather or traffic news without having to download third party apps to do so. It saves time, is very convenient and doesn't slow the phone down to a crawl. Social networking is also catered for, with Facebook and Twitter support.
Some of the things that let it down is with the battery life percentage indicator. Usually with battery life percentage indicators, you can see in double digits how much juice a battery has as any one time, be it 89% or 85%, you can tell. With the Defy, it displays the percentages in multiples of ten. So if it is 95% or 93%, it will always display 90%, and the same thing again in the 80s, and then the 70s. Some may be able to ignore it, but for me it can become quite distracting.
The flash compatibility is very good, but sometimes the speed of Flash on the device can be sluggish, and that does become slightly annoying, especially when you're trying to stream a video to watch it online. If you want to give it a try, go to BBC iPlayer with a browser that pretends to be a Desktop computer, and you will get a general idea on how slow it is. I visit many Web 2.0 websites so I need the streaming video thing working properly. Those websites do not have a mobile version, thus I cannot use a mobile version for better speed.
I also find the motoBlur software to be a rather cumbersome additional app to the phone. This allows you to backup settings you've made to your phone, such as social networking or RSS feeds, and allows you to quickly move your settings over to a new Motorola phone if you upgrade to a newer Motorola Android handset. In order for it to work, you need to create a motoBlur account and let it automatically sign in every time your phone is on. It then makes background backups when your phone is next online and can connect to your account.
The issue for me here is that it is a big assumption to expect me to upgrade to another Motorola Android handset in the future, anything can happen so I find this rather useless as a result. If I wanted to back up my settings, I could just use the back up utility of the computer software I must install in order to synchronise it with my PC. Also, if you ever take your SIM out of the handset and try to use the phone as a standard web browsing Android device, you need to log back into your motoBlur account before it allows you to use the phone at all. If you forgot your motoBlur password, it is a massive hassle to go through the process of getting your password and entering it just to use your phone.
The camera and flash I found were quite feeble, with the picture quality from the 5 megapixel camera being slightly worse than the iPhone 4's 5 megapixel camera, and the LED light itself is too diffused so it isn't bright enough in certain situations. The iPhone 4's camera is already at a sub-par standard when compared to other camera phones, so if the Defy is of lower quality, you know that this phone is not meant for taking pictures where the quality matters. It does work well enough for Google Goggles to function properly, but I wouldn't use it for family photos.
Despite my complaints of the phone, I find it to be exceptional value for money. I always thought that acceptable phones that do not offend a gadget savvy, yet financially stunted individual, such as myself, was the stuff of dreams, yet here we are with a handset from those sensible people at Motorola. Not only have they created a phone that is feature packed, it is also dust proof, water resistant and shock resistant. In my mind, this is a reliable and manly phone, fully deserving of its 'Lifeproof' moniker. Should it appeal to people remains to be seen, but for me it is a great rugged phone that I am happy to carry in my pocket, or indeed my back pocket whilst riding a bike over a potholed terrain, with the risk of falling off forever present. This is the FatMan88 signing off, I have some extra battery life left in this phone to waste over a pointless phone call in a swimming pool...
It does defy mobile phone conventions 
