Motorola DEFY+ deals & review

The Motorola Defy was the phone that made it fashionable to be rugged and waterproof. Prior to this offering from Motorola rugged handsets offered the bare minimum in terms of features and were somewhat akin to a top of the line handset from 1992. Packing in a touchscreen display and Android OS the Defy also offered excellent protection against water, dust and drops.

The Motorola Defy+ pretty much offers the same level of ruggedness as the original handset but also throws in a few of the new technological advancements that have been made since its release back in 2010. Mainly, it has an improved processor, battery and updated Android interface to play around with.

The Defy+ is still IP67 certified, so it is resistant to dust and can be held underwater at a depth of 1 metre for about half an hour while incurring no damage. The screen is coated in Gorilla Glass so that it is less likely to get damaged while being knocked about and the overall physical design of the phone makes it more protected against general drops and knocks as well.

Android Gingerbread is a big improvement on the Android Éclair found on the original, and obviously the phone benefits from all the new features added into the latest Google OS. The phone comes with Android Market support as well as great entertainment offline and online, including YouTube, and also features great social networking support. The processor speed has been increased from 800MHz to 1GHz, making all software features more seamless and enjoyable.

The battery is another area that has seen a big improvement, bumped up from 1540 mAh to a much more durable 1700 mAh. Because of this the Defy+ is less likely to let you down when you need it most. This is a similar experience to the original but with enough hardware and software changes to bring it a bit more up to speed. These improvements also help to make the Defy brand more competitive against the new kids on the rugged block, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active and the Samsung Galaxy Xcover.