Motorola Defy Tested!

Yes, that's right I waited long enough or almost too long and finally picked up the Motorola Defy. Now before I give you the specs let me tell you what I did with it to test it.

This past weekend I was down at the east coast with my little brother and enjoying some of the warm weather that has just past through. We decided to do some kayaking in the inter-coastal water way and decided I should take my phone due to it's proclaimed durability. During the four hour trip, I dropped the phone in water at my feet when we were fishing off a sand bar, and threw it to my brother who completely missed it and it landed in the sand face down! Having said all of that here's what Motorola Claims about the Defy from their website:
"...it's dustproof as well as water and scratch resistant, making it virtually life proof." and to be honest after what I put it through I'm convinced about a few things:

• It's definitely water resistant. After I dropped it I felt a hurry to pick it up(plus it was in salt water) but decided to wait a second and see how it did anyway. I picked it up and it was working just fine and did the rest of the day.

1. It is actually scratch resistant, almost scratch proof. After being in the water the salt had dried on the screen and I wiped it off without thinking, but nothing happened to the screen. Even after it landed in the sand I still just wiped it off.
2. It may be dust proof but not sand proof. I'm sure none of the sand or dust has gotten into the actual inner working of the phone, however I did have to take the back battery cover off and get some excess sand out from around the camera, but in it's defense no real sand made it's way to the battery part of the phone. I guess because of the little rubber molding that was around it held up pretty good.

All in all the phone did great for being out and about, we even dropped it from about 4 feet on to a hardwood floor and nothing happened. 

Now the Details:

• It's running Motorola's MOTOBLUR, which is an overlay on the Android OS. To me it's like using Firefox instead of the Internet Explorer that comes with your computer. Some people don't like this but I find it very useful. First it automatically will sync up all of your contacts with Facebook, Twitter, etc. and put them all together also has a feature called "Family Contacts" where it syncs up all your family contact which is good for me too. Second you can access them anytime from your MOTOBLUR account and if you lose your phone you can remotely wipe all your info on the phone so that no one can access it.
• 5 mega-pixel camera and video with flash! this is must for me b/c I don't carry a camera and so this is it for me & with MOTOBLUR it's one touch uploading to twitter/facebook or sharing to contacts.
• Android 2.1, that's actually a slight downfall because the most current version is 2.3(Gingerbread) but only a few phones have this. Most have 2.2 (froyo) But the Defy is set to update automatically to the 2.2 in the next quarter.
• 800mhz processor speed which is good, not a gig but still damn good. I can play my Angry Birds with ease on it. Widget updates are actually faster than before too.
• Gorilla Glass! that stuff really worked when I wiped salt and sand off of it, The screen is also bigger than an iPhone4 and only a tad thicker but MUCH MUCH more durable. I have several friend who have cracked theirs from the shortest falls.
• Email & Widgets, these come in very handy. It syncs all your email accounts and widgets can be resized to fit where ever you want. It also has 7 screens! Tons of space
• Talk time and battery. The website says 6.8 hours of talk time, more like 5-6 which is still good. Standby time still looks about the same, a whopping 9 days!

All in all I love this phone for my lifestyle. I'm very active and will put some wear on this phone for here's what we have for ratings:

• For active lifestyles who will put their phone through moderate abuse and use it to do most social/networking tools 4 out of 5 (2.1 held it back)
• For Tech Geeks who watch movies on their phones and store a ton of games on it.  3 out of 5 due to processor speed and Android 2.1. 
• For me--outdoors moderate to massive phone abuse, casual games (Angry Birds/Poker/Racing) tons of music tons of pictures, 3 twitter accounts, 4 webpages, 2 facebooks, family all sync in family widgets and this blog...5 out of 5!