By When is the last time you purposefully dumped water on your phone? Probably never. You’re more likely protecting it from the lightest of rain drizzles and babying it every time you place it in your pocket. But we’re not you, so we’re going to pour water on a phone:
Of the 7 phones Motorola announced on Tuesday, the Motorola DEFY for T-Mobile is one of my three favorites (along with Droid Pro for its BlackBerryishness and Flipout for it’s awkward teen attraction). These might not be high end Android’s but they are a vital part of not only Motorola’s strategy, but also the Android ecosystem, and it represents what Android is and can be.
More and more users are flocking to Android, and Motorola is thinking about those that haven’t yet switched to Android, asking themselves why not, and then catering to these users with unique offerings that fit their needs. The Motorola DEFY is clearly geared to the youthful, everyday phone user who wants the benefits of a smartphone but not all the baggage of caring for a tender piece of love and technology.
The DEFY claims to be Life Proof, which when it comes down to non-marketing speak, means you can get it a little wet, drop it and rough it up a little bit on accident and you won’t break the darn thing. It’s durable, and it comes with one of my favorite pieces of smartphone technology that I hope to see in all phones at some point – Gorilla glass.
The Motorola Droid, a phone I picked up the day it came out, was the first phone to popularize Gorilla Glass. Put it in your pocket along with keys, coins, and other goodies that would normally scratch your screen and the Gorilla Glass (for the most part) keeps your screen looking brand new. Now the body of your phone might get a little banged up, but it’s the precious screen that we care most about since it’s the keeper (and relayer) of the content that makes a phone what it is.
Talking specs, the Motorola DEFY rocks a capable but not overwhelming list:
- 3.7-inch screen
- 5MP camera
- 3.5mm headset jack
- FM Radio
- Android 2.1
- MOTOBLUR
- 800MHz processor
That’s MORE than enough multimedia power to make moving from a feature phone to a smartphone well worth the money, even if you happen to splash some water on it or drop it down a flight of stairs or five. Because let’s face it, after watching the video above, at some point or another we all wish we had a phone that could defy the elements. Or our own clumsiness.
800MHz TI OMAP or Qualcomm MSM/QSD?
Will it has moisture stickers?
Slap in a faster processor, android 2.2 and ditch that MotoBlur crap and I’d buy it in a second.
See how the screen went crazy as the water dribbled on it? I once put my DInc in a ziplock bag, evacuated the extra air and put it under a running faucet. As soon as a bunch of water landed on the screen, it went wonky and it locked up the touch functions. I had to use the optical pad to do anything after that until I reset the phone. Apparently, this didn’t happen here, or there wasn’t enough water.
I was expecting his going to dump it in to a tank.
The crazy thing is the screen DIDN’T go crazy. It sensed the water as if it was a touch or swipe of the screen. As you can see, once he takes it out of the box the screen functions perfectly normal, indicating the water didn’t have any type of negative affect on the phone or screen itself.
@rob jackson
yea I agree.
So it can stand up to a bit of water, nice… But… will it blend?
More MOTOBLUR crap
isnt the moto i1 already weather resistant…..this was kinda boring, how about they submerge it or at least lay it face down in water for a few minutes….i could pee on my moment and itll be fine if i pick it right up
I’ve had rain on my droid x. It just made my swipes all messed up until I dried it off.
I’ve tried showing a few of my friends how scratch resistant gorilla glass is a few times. Always fun to see the look on their faces when I take out the keys, then the pocket knife.
I hope Verizon gets something like soon. Before going with my droid I had a Casio Boulder and I could drop in a glass of water for twenty minutes pull it out and make a call.
OMG Motorola why didn’t u make this STOCK! I thought it would be an ugly phone but its not. Its pretty like my Cliq. The Cliq’s color is very pretty that winter white color
So this is a G2 Competitor very nice. Stock w kb or Motoblur w no keyboard and that could survive numerous accidents?
I agree with A. Perry, the faster processor, gorilla glass, 2.2, etc. AND the almost unbrickablity and ease of rooting of the Droid 1, and I’d get one in a heartbeat. Regarding Alexander’s post, and Rob and UniqueNate’s replies, no it didn’t go crazy at all. Most (not all) touchscreens rely on being touched by objects that conducts electricity (ie, your fingers) like most, if not all android-based phones use; I don’t know if there are any that can be used with a stylus (which works by using light pressure on the screen with a stylus, like a lot of the blackberries). At any rate, the screen did read the water being poured on it as swipes, as Rob mentioned. This is exactly why the screen did what it did while having water poured on it and worked fine afterwards. I too, would have liked to see it dunked as well. Cool review though.
To be fair, my Milestone has taken quite a beating over it’s life! I’ve dropped it out my locker at work, spilt beer on it, stood on it, the list of clumsiness is almost endless. But it’s still going strong, the only signs of damage are the gold has worn off the camera button and sone of the black paint has worn off around the screen. So if the Milestone can take this punishment, I would imagine the Defy could almost be bomb-proof!
hey u guys. i do not understand why people hate the motoblur. even if they hate them why should it stop u from buying the phone. basically u can close all the motoblur widgets by holding on to the widget and then dragging it to the trash can icon.
@charles
They stay running the the background all the time. And I mean ALL the time, no matter what you do, All of them…
Reasons MotoBlur Sucks:
-Hogs Resources
-Runs in the backgroud & cannot be shut off or disabled
-Kills Battery Life
-Hinders similair like programs from working on the OS (like a Facebook App from the market wont work as well since MotoBlur has a Facbook-like integration)
-Biggest Bloatware of any Manufacturer
-Because of MotoBlur, Motorola updates take longer to be released since they require more time to make there lame crap work with the OS. The the carrier has to go through there own BS….long, drawn out and unnecessary.
If you open the keyboard and turn the screen to the sky when it’s raining, the flowing text can be read:
“You all mighty grod release me from thus blured dress and let me drink your evolutive blood to become like other froyanian brothers of my age”
and a shallow voice says:
“You need to pay for keeping some of your brothers away from hell of windows phone 7”
“It’s a sleak phone, it looks great…”
Yeah, except for BLUR. Why did you blur the phone? Why?!
If motorola were smart they would make blur a downloadable thing in the market thats optional
moto so about the only thing it’s good for is dumping on, I wonder if it can defy poor support from a shit company, doubt it.