Motorola Defy+
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pamiparminder
Apprentice
I would do a small review as soon as i get the phone but the phone is still in transit and is currently in some " MAA-Main office,India".navino87 said:That's nice :hap2:.. Update here once you get it.. A small review would be great.. My brother will be getting one very soon
nt knw..:SAt-last got the phone yesterday night. It took about 5 days to get from Delhi to Chennai, notsure why a overnight courier should take that much time but at-least it is delivered.navino87 said:
Anyways the phone itself is very good , excellent voice quality , responsive UI and seems to have a good battery life. Would post a detailed review along with shopping impressions with Letsbuy today evening.
Here is a quick review of the Motorola Defy+ ,
Why the Defy+
Basically i am very poor in handling mobiles , water had damaged my earlier N95 which i had replaced with X6 about a year and half ago in which i had broke the LCD and Touchscreen when the phone fell down from my hand. I had initially wanted to replace my X6 with the Defy but battery life is a huge factor for me since most of times , i would forget to charge the phone regularly. Hence i wanted to wait for Defy+ to be launched with a better battery so that i can buy the same.
Letsbuy buying impressions:
To be honest i would normally not buy over Internet since tracking the shipment and delivery would be a big headache but in Chennai not many showrooms had heard about the Defy let alone Defy+ and places where they have stock the prices quited were exorbitant (for Defy, they have no idea Defy+ was to be launched) and hence i was left with no option but to buy using letsbuy where the phone was available for the lowest rate. The icing on the cake was the discount coupon mentioned by navino87 which reduced the price by another 1000 rupees.
Initially i wanted to order it using COD but the discount coupon was not applicable to COD and hence booked using my credit card. Interestingly the phone got shipped out to Aramex the very next day but the shipping time by Aramex from Delhi to my Chennai home took about 5 days for a package for what is supposed to be a overnight flight courier. This did give some nervous moments but the shipment arrived without any transit damages.
A disclaimer which is that i have never couriered any item like this within India with any other couriers and hence maybe this might be the time which would take for shipping a device or maybe Aramex is not good. Either case the phone got delivered properly so i am cool.
Packing impressions:
The packing quality of letsbuy was very good. There was multiple layers of "Bubble cover" packed tightly over the Defy box and the whole thing was done in a very professional manner. No complains on this part at all. In addition to the Phone , i had received a free Bluetooth headset for which i really have no use for. I would have preferred a additional discount if one wants to deselect the bluetooth set but i guess it would be too much to ask considering the price i had got the phone.
Phone casing impressions:
Well it looks just like the Defy but without the front facing camera. The Device looks is nothing remarkable , which in itself is amazing considering that this phone has ip67 certifications. The phone feels nice to hold , very thin and overall looks like a very good design. Only gripe is that to access the SD card slot one needs to be remove the battery but it is okay considering what the phone offers.
Normally all the ip67 complaint phone would actually look like they would withstand world war-3 (and would weigh a ton) but the Defy+ feels tight and light. I mean i have no doubts that this phone is rugged which is very clear on close examination but concealing those and giving a everyday joe's phone is remarkable.
The UI:
The phone has the motoblur UI installed along with the Swipe keyboard. I find the UI pretty okay and really like the Swipe keyboard when compared to the traditional muti-touch keyboard. It is just effortless to type with the Swipe.I am not sure what the gripe with the Motoblur UI is but i find it pretty thoughtful and easy to access. The only niggle if any is that the button to enable the speaker (during a call) in the UI is at the left most corner and not easy to press in a hurry.
Remaining are all normal Gingerbread functionalities which would have been discussed already and i have nothing specific to add to the same.
Camera:
To be honest i expect a really bad camera and most of the rugged devices do not even have a camera but it is pretty okay (when comparing with X6). The Macro photos have good detail , auto-focus mostly works fine , capturing photos is also good. The video does not have 720p recording capability but the quality of video is surprisingly good. In the end it is not going win any awards for the camera but would suffice for my usage.
GPS:
Pretty good. Without A-GPS takes about 2-3 minutes to get a good fix and with A-GPS it gets a fix within a minute. Not bad again considering the Casing restrictions.
Call quality:
Comparing with the X6 and N95 the Microphone and speaker quality if better though not by a big margin. The Loudspeaker produces lesser max volume when compared to the the one with X6. In the end there is a small perceptible improvement in my call quality though i guess it more due to the noise cancellation microphone than anything else.
Signal reception:
Again it is very good but the difference when comparing with X6 is that it seems to reacquire networks faster. For example when landing from a plane the X6 used to anywhere between 2-4 minutes to get a operator and in the Defy+ it seems t happen under 2 minutes for most of the cases. Then again the difference is very marginal compared to my X6 but generally the main functionality of the phone (i.e. making calls) is good.
In less signal areas , i see no difference between the Defy+, X6 and N-95 so the baseband is at-least as good as my earlier phones which is okay for my requirements.
Screen:
Okay screen , not brilliant as the Super AMOLED of the Galaxy , not as bad as some Low end Android phones from LG/Samsung, slightly better than the screen from the X6. Direct sunlight reading is in-between bad to very bad. The phone does come with an ambient light sensor and it does a pretty reasonable job of varying the screen brightness in different light conditions.
Performance:
The OMAP3530 clocked at 1Ghz does a good job. There is little to no lag in the UI , most of the games run without much jitter ..... the CPU is no Tegra or Kal-El but for the price point which the phone targets it is okay.
Battery:
The major change in the Defy+ is the 1650mAH battery and it is good. The charge lasts for easily for a couple of days with some dozen phone calls, occasional wifi/gprs , light gaming and i would say the battery lasts better than the X6 which is good considering that the X6 battery used to last for a lot of usage without charging. At-last i am have a proper mid range Android phone where the charge does not drain in a day's time. I consider the money spend on Defy+ when compared to buying a Defy.
if you guys need anything specific , please do let me know.
Edit:
@navino87 : I have no idea , i did not have usage of the Bluetooth headset. It is somewhere in my home. let me dig and see what the street price of that would be.
Why the Defy+
Basically i am very poor in handling mobiles , water had damaged my earlier N95 which i had replaced with X6 about a year and half ago in which i had broke the LCD and Touchscreen when the phone fell down from my hand. I had initially wanted to replace my X6 with the Defy but battery life is a huge factor for me since most of times , i would forget to charge the phone regularly. Hence i wanted to wait for Defy+ to be launched with a better battery so that i can buy the same.
Letsbuy buying impressions:
To be honest i would normally not buy over Internet since tracking the shipment and delivery would be a big headache but in Chennai not many showrooms had heard about the Defy let alone Defy+ and places where they have stock the prices quited were exorbitant (for Defy, they have no idea Defy+ was to be launched) and hence i was left with no option but to buy using letsbuy where the phone was available for the lowest rate. The icing on the cake was the discount coupon mentioned by navino87 which reduced the price by another 1000 rupees.
Initially i wanted to order it using COD but the discount coupon was not applicable to COD and hence booked using my credit card. Interestingly the phone got shipped out to Aramex the very next day but the shipping time by Aramex from Delhi to my Chennai home took about 5 days for a package for what is supposed to be a overnight flight courier. This did give some nervous moments but the shipment arrived without any transit damages.
A disclaimer which is that i have never couriered any item like this within India with any other couriers and hence maybe this might be the time which would take for shipping a device or maybe Aramex is not good. Either case the phone got delivered properly so i am cool.
Packing impressions:
The packing quality of letsbuy was very good. There was multiple layers of "Bubble cover" packed tightly over the Defy box and the whole thing was done in a very professional manner. No complains on this part at all. In addition to the Phone , i had received a free Bluetooth headset for which i really have no use for. I would have preferred a additional discount if one wants to deselect the bluetooth set but i guess it would be too much to ask considering the price i had got the phone.
Phone casing impressions:
Well it looks just like the Defy but without the front facing camera. The Device looks is nothing remarkable , which in itself is amazing considering that this phone has ip67 certifications. The phone feels nice to hold , very thin and overall looks like a very good design. Only gripe is that to access the SD card slot one needs to be remove the battery but it is okay considering what the phone offers.
Normally all the ip67 complaint phone would actually look like they would withstand world war-3 (and would weigh a ton) but the Defy+ feels tight and light. I mean i have no doubts that this phone is rugged which is very clear on close examination but concealing those and giving a everyday joe's phone is remarkable.
The UI:
The phone has the motoblur UI installed along with the Swipe keyboard. I find the UI pretty okay and really like the Swipe keyboard when compared to the traditional muti-touch keyboard. It is just effortless to type with the Swipe.I am not sure what the gripe with the Motoblur UI is but i find it pretty thoughtful and easy to access. The only niggle if any is that the button to enable the speaker (during a call) in the UI is at the left most corner and not easy to press in a hurry.
Remaining are all normal Gingerbread functionalities which would have been discussed already and i have nothing specific to add to the same.
Camera:
To be honest i expect a really bad camera and most of the rugged devices do not even have a camera but it is pretty okay (when comparing with X6). The Macro photos have good detail , auto-focus mostly works fine , capturing photos is also good. The video does not have 720p recording capability but the quality of video is surprisingly good. In the end it is not going win any awards for the camera but would suffice for my usage.
GPS:
Pretty good. Without A-GPS takes about 2-3 minutes to get a good fix and with A-GPS it gets a fix within a minute. Not bad again considering the Casing restrictions.
Call quality:
Comparing with the X6 and N95 the Microphone and speaker quality if better though not by a big margin. The Loudspeaker produces lesser max volume when compared to the the one with X6. In the end there is a small perceptible improvement in my call quality though i guess it more due to the noise cancellation microphone than anything else.
Signal reception:
Again it is very good but the difference when comparing with X6 is that it seems to reacquire networks faster. For example when landing from a plane the X6 used to anywhere between 2-4 minutes to get a operator and in the Defy+ it seems t happen under 2 minutes for most of the cases. Then again the difference is very marginal compared to my X6 but generally the main functionality of the phone (i.e. making calls) is good.
In less signal areas , i see no difference between the Defy+, X6 and N-95 so the baseband is at-least as good as my earlier phones which is okay for my requirements.
Screen:
Okay screen , not brilliant as the Super AMOLED of the Galaxy , not as bad as some Low end Android phones from LG/Samsung, slightly better than the screen from the X6. Direct sunlight reading is in-between bad to very bad. The phone does come with an ambient light sensor and it does a pretty reasonable job of varying the screen brightness in different light conditions.
Performance:
The OMAP3530 clocked at 1Ghz does a good job. There is little to no lag in the UI , most of the games run without much jitter ..... the CPU is no Tegra or Kal-El but for the price point which the phone targets it is okay.
Battery:
The major change in the Defy+ is the 1650mAH battery and it is good. The charge lasts for easily for a couple of days with some dozen phone calls, occasional wifi/gprs , light gaming and i would say the battery lasts better than the X6 which is good considering that the X6 battery used to last for a lot of usage without charging. At-last i am have a proper mid range Android phone where the charge does not drain in a day's time. I consider the money spend on Defy+ when compared to buying a Defy.
if you guys need anything specific , please do let me know.
Edit:
@navino87 : I have no idea , i did not have usage of the Bluetooth headset. It is somewhere in my home. let me dig and see what the street price of that would be.
abirokz said:@aceman Thank you for u r detailed review
well one thing i have to ask is that hows the audio quality..is it good??hows the quality through headphones??
Audio quality (in call) and through the speaker (in-call) is very nice. I am definitely having better clarity with the Defy+ which compared to my old X6/N95 sets. But as a pure loudspeaker the X6 gave much better volumes when compared for Defy+.
The Headphones are strictly average. The ones which came with the X6 was better (i think). Since i don't use headphones , this quality of the bundled ear-piece does not make much of a difference to me.
@aceman Very true and biased review...
Headphones are below average but still its a very vfm money phone,for rough users like me... i am too upgrading to better headphones than the stock ones...
my defy+'s update is failing ;
my current software version : 45.0.891.MB526.AsiaRetail.en.03
after dowloading update ,d5+ restarts to install it and crashes while booting.
is any one having same issue ?
major9
Contributor
I bought my Defy+ from Letsbuy. Took about 4 days to deliver including a Weekend. Came through Aramex with very good packing.
Somebody asked about the Free Headset. The Headset I got was an Enter Bluetooth Headset. Its my first headset, so can't comment much about it.
About the handset, when I compare it with other Android phones in the same range Motorola has done a very good job. The phone build quality is very superior compared to HTC, Samsung. Even a couple of Mobile Retailers told me the same after they saw the Defy.
The stock headphone is pretty good. It stays in your ears even when Jogging. Only downside is, its not In Ear type.
The only problem when you get a Defy is difficulty in getting Screen Guards & Cases locally. Couldn't find any in my place (Cochin). You'll have to depend on the Ebay.
Somebody asked about the Free Headset. The Headset I got was an Enter Bluetooth Headset. Its my first headset, so can't comment much about it.
About the handset, when I compare it with other Android phones in the same range Motorola has done a very good job. The phone build quality is very superior compared to HTC, Samsung. Even a couple of Mobile Retailers told me the same after they saw the Defy.
The stock headphone is pretty good. It stays in your ears even when Jogging. Only downside is, its not In Ear type.
The only problem when you get a Defy is difficulty in getting Screen Guards & Cases locally. Couldn't find any in my place (Cochin). You'll have to depend on the Ebay.
bluediamond
Explorer
Bumping existing one..
Any idea how to save phone numbers to Sim or to phone rather than to google accounts in defy +? Or is this a feature of motto blur which you cannot avoid?
Any idea how to save phone numbers to Sim or to phone rather than to google accounts in defy +? Or is this a feature of motto blur which you cannot avoid?
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