Motorola Defy - the ultimate biker's phone

[shrub]

I am hell on cellphones. I drop them, drown them and lose them; and that's expensive but my problems are (probably) over.

A couple of weeks ago I was sold one of the new Motorola Defy smartphones, and it's brilliant. It's waterproof - I tested it by dropping it in a jug of beer and by the time i'd finished it was still working, so I repeated the test and still no problems, so I figure it will cope with a wet ride. It's supposed to be pretty well shockproof, so when I drop it in the shed and stand on it, something that cost me one phone, it should survive. If I lose it or it gets stolen I go online and i can find out where it is to within 4m!

And being a smartphone it has an MP3 player, good camera, excellent video (for a camera) and my favourite app, GPS. I am directionally challenged and because I use my bike as my main transport I was forever pulling over, taking off my gloves, putting on my specs and then trying to figure out where I was and where I needed to be. Now I tell the phone where I want to be, stick on the headphones and it tells me where to go. Like most people I know... I can also check email etc wherever I am which for me is essential because most of my work is net based these days. Smart phones have heaps of other cool shit like a decibel metre, a thing that turns it into a torch, a quake app (useful down here) and a tricky app where if there is music playing I point the phone at the source and it tells me who and what - great for when you hear good music at pubs and cafes.

The one drawback is it is a battery pig and a charge lasts around a day, so I have learned to carry a charger when I'm out and about and not likely to be home for a while and will be fitting a cigarette lighter and adaptor to my bike.


They're $799 and I highly recommend them.

[Scuba_Steve]

I've been interested in the Defy just not sure about the software side & long term abuse (...I miss my Nokia 5120i could handle anything) so I'd like to know how u go in a few months & how the software preforms too, I'm in 2 minds with this Android thing & the MotoBlur I have heard mixed reactions.

Ideally I would like a rugged iPhone but as yet this is not an option

[oneofsix]

A charge a day sucks, especially if you need the GPS in the evening, you could get left up that infamous creek.
As a ruggered smart phone I too will be interested to see how it survives, of course by the time you know it is going to survive it may no longer be on the market

[bogan]

A charge a day sucks, especially if you need the GPS in the evening, you could get left up that infamous creek.
As a ruggered smart phone I too will be interested to see how it survives, of course by the time you know it is going to survive it may no longer be on the market

You can get chargepacks for phones which are just big auxilary batteries, if you are doing long trips, or car chargers.

Sounds like a damn good phone, does it make a good mp3 player as well?

[shrub]

I've been interested in the Defy just not sure about the software side & long term abuse (...I miss my Nokia 5120i could handle anything) so I'd like to know how u go in a few months & how the software preforms too, I'm in 2 minds with this Android thing & the MotoBlur I have heard mixed reactions.

Ideally I would like a rugged iPhone but as yet this is not an option

From what i can see Android is getting ahead of iPhone because it's open source, so easier to write apps. I had a long chat to a perky young thing at the Vodafone shop and I couldn't see any advantages to Apple over Android despite her doing all the flirty shit. The Motoblur doesn't seem to be an issue - there is a widget that tells me if someone has emailed or texted me and when I touch it it takes me to whatever has come in. Apparently it can be a nuisance if you're a big time tweeter, but given I have written about 3 tweets in my life it's not a problem.

As for abuse, I just did a scientific test by throwing it hard at the fence and it bounced off and landed in the garden. I ran it under the hose and it's as good as new.

You can get chargepacks for phones which are just big auxilary batteries, if you are doing long trips, or car chargers.

Sounds like a damn good phone, does it make a good mp3 player as well?

I use an app called Poweramp and with that it is as good function wise as my partner's iPhone and I am in the market for a good set of earphones. Because storage is using a micro SD I spent an extra $60 and now have 16GB of storage, so can use real high bitrate MP3s which lifts the sound quality. I use Mediamonkey to manage my files on my laptop and it's a brazillian times better that iTunes.

[Geeen]

Ive had Andriod phones for a couple of years and swear by them. They are outselling iPones almost 2 -1 overseas. Also heavily tied up with Google so things like google goggles and latitude are pretty reliable. As a biker Latitude can be handy if you have an off like Katiepies. Wife/ Partner just logs in and gets the GPS location of the phone. Also you get to abuse Apple fanboys and watch them flame up.

[Scuba_Steve]

Also you get to abuse Apple fanboys and watch them flame up.

If you like them you'll love the Microsoft fan boys

[tigertim20]

sounds like a good bit of kit but fuck if Im going to pay that sort of coin for a ohone!! maybe when theyve been out a bit longer the price will drop.

You can probably extend your battery life considerably by turning off alot of unneccesary background functions.

[Geeen]

If you like them you'll love the Microsoft fan boys

Yup, winding up anyone that's blindly loyal is fun. Christians, Mormons, Fanboys, Harley Riders. Gotta stay away from Honda riders though, coz they is scary

[Scuba_Steve]

Yup, winding up anyone that's blindly loyal is fun. Christians, Mormons, Fanboys, Harley Riders. Gotta stay away from Honda riders though, coz they is scary

hey I is one of them sometimes (other times I'm a Suzuki rider)

[jaffaonajappa]

Yup, winding up anyone that's blindly loyal is fun. Christians, Mormons, Fanboys, Harley Riders. Gotta stay away from Honda riders though, coz they is scary

Bwahahaha. I never thought Id come across a Honda fanboy....till I found KB.

And check out them ruggedised cases for iphones. Chuck em in a puddle, drive over them at speed, and they still work.

[oneofsix]

hey I is one of them sometimes (other times I'm a Suzuki rider)

yes right of course you is. The Suzuki is where at the moment and the Honda is in how many bits?

[oneofsix]

Ive had Andriod phones for a couple of years and swear by them. They are outselling iPones almost 2 -1 overseas. Also heavily tied up with Google so things like google goggles and latitude are pretty reliable. As a biker Latitude can be handy if you have an off like Katiepies. Wife/ Partner just logs in and gets the GPS location of the phone. Also you get to abuse Apple fanboys and watch them flame up.

Have you ever have had to upgrade the Andriod? Heard a rumour today that some of the phones sold in NZ have been locked into older versions.

[Geeen]

Have you ever have had to upgrade the Andriod? Heard a rumour today that some of the phones sold in NZ have been locked into older versions.

On my old Android I got over the air updates from my telco. But if you 'root' (gain admin access) to the device you can flash whatever ROM you want onto it. Cyanogenmod is really popular for an alternate ROM. My new phone runs 2.2 at the moment, if I really got in to it I could probably find the newest release on the net. Part of the beauty of Android is its based on Linux Kernals so its robust. Have a look at some of the Android forums as to gaining root access, from there you can over clock the CPU etc etc

[oneofsix]

On my old Android I got over the air updates from my telco. But if you 'root' (gain admin access) to the device you can flash whatever ROM you want onto it. Cyanogenmod is really popular for an alternate ROM. My new phone runs 2.2 at the moment, if I really got in to it I could probably find the newest release on the net. Part of the beauty of Android is its based on Linux Kernals so its robust. Have a look at some of the Android forums as to gaining root access, from there you can over clock the CPU etc etc

Thanks and yes being as it is a Linux based kernel it sound iffy to me. This, its robustness and Katiepies experience make the Defy very attractive just a pity about the cost as I also require some new gear.