Our very own Sabesh just finished his review of the Motorola DEFY PRO:
The Motorola Defy Pro brings an interesting set of features to the party: Moderately water, dust & shock-proof and good QWERTY keyboard. It runs Android 2.3 with Motorola's MotoBlur overlay.
It's keyboard rivals that of the Blackberry Bold 9900 and is a pleasure to use. They keys are even shaped in a similar fashion. The keys don't "click" as much as the 9900, but do have a good feedback. The physical keyboard even supports Auto complete! One caveat though: The centre pad is a directional button, not a scroll pad like that of the Bold 9900.
Specification highlights:
- Dimensions: 110 x 66 x 12 mm.
- Weight: 115 g.
- Screen: 320 x 480 pixels, 2.7 inches (~214 ppi pixel density).
- Expansion: microSD slot, 2GB included.
- Camera: 5 MP,with Autofocus & LED flash.
- CPU: 1 Ghz.
- Additional features: Compass, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, FM Radio, GPS with A-GPS, Quickbooks, Gorilla glass.
My first impression was that it looked a slightly less sharp, compared to the 9900 and Telus's HTC Status. However, I realized that this is a phone that can be bought outright for $275 and has features that its rivals don't have. The UI has no latency, as the 1 Ghz CPU with 512mb RAM is quite adequate for most applications.
It's geared towards business users with the following included: Meeting app, Citrix, a stellar email app and Quickbooks for dealing with office documentation. These are augmented by useful widgets like frequent contacts & frequently used apps. A neat feature is the Dock: It retracts when leaving the home screen and is re-engaged by touch. The physical finish is perfect for office environments.
Battery life is outstanding, compared to the HTC Status and certainly better than that of the Bold 9900. I can safely go 12-15 hours without re-charging the battery. This is such a relief, after dealing with a mass of juice-sucking Android devices. There's no memory leak, as in the HTC Status. Hence, it's safe to update Apps and not worry about losing storage space.
I took a risk and carried this phone along with my keys in the same pocket. Not a single scratch or mark on it! I splashed some water on it. No issues. This thing is a tank. Mind you, it's not as tough as a Sonim phone, but should be good for most of us to use without worrying about damaging it.
Oh, did I mention the speaker? It's LOUD. I have it at about 50% and can hear it perfectly in most situations. Motorola has designed the speaker to be heard in loud areas (construction sites etc).
The camera is average. It takes good pictures, but AF is slow. The pictures have adequate details and their dynamic range is good.
It plays most games well, like Angry birds. But slows down with larger games. Browsing on the Defy Pro is good and I didn't run into any sites that it could not handle: Your mileage may vary.
My biggest issue with this phone (and the HTC Status), is that it doesn't display some apps in correct orientation. Apps like "Speedtest" have to be viewed holding the phone at a 90 degree angle. This makes it cumbersome to operate these apps. I suspect that this has to do more with lazy app developers, rather than Motorola.
Conclusion:
Blackberry keyboard devices finally have a serious competitor. The Defy Pro, with an awesome keyboard coupled with included business software, is a compelling device for existing Blackberry Bold users. I can see a few Bold users switching to the Defy Pro. There's nothing quite like it in the market right now, due to it's ruggedized feature set. It looks good, and is quite small. What's there not to like?
Pros:
- Small and stylish.
- Outstanding physical keyboard.
- $275 outright price-point.
- Moderately water, dust & shock-proof.
- Business apps included.
- Outstanding battery life.
- Loud speaker.
- Speedy for this class of phone.
- Useful widgets.
Cons:
- Have to view some apps sideways.
- Camera AF is slow.
Additional pictures:
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