Motorola DEFY Mini Sim Free Smartphone - Black Slate and Tangerine

Not being a technical expert on these types of phone, I can only give my amateur opinion.On opening the box, which I was amazed at how small it was ! The following items were enclosed : phone, mains charger plug, data cable, headphones,good quality,colour instruction booklet.On initial starting up of the phone, I was informed as per the booklet that it would require charging, (30 % charge on battery, it took approximately 2 hours to fully charge ).Once charged, the phone informed me of the options available for registering with G-mail etc, although this was not necessary to use the phone.I carried on personalising the phone with ringtones etc which was very easy & the phone provided tips & help along the way.
There are multiple options available which are not shown in the instruction book,but even I could figure them out as I went along.I connected the phone to my computer to synch music, and this was done in seconds with the minimum of fuss.
I was very impressed that when I entered appointments on the calendar, the GPS/mapping system showed me where the addresses were automatically.
Believe it or not,this "device" actually lets you make phone calls or send texts !
This phone has many functions, which I cannot even begin to cover here.The main points for me were that it was shock-proof, waterproof etc, I have used it in the rain with no problems, which was a major plus point for me.My wife & daughter have phones which are double the price of this one, and I cannot see any difference in speed, quality, functions etc.

I would recommend this phone for people who want a "smart phone " which is not wimpy !

Update :

I have used this phone for a couple of weeks now and have found it easy to get on with.The phone itself is a reasonable size which easily fits into a pocket, it is not too big, but feels robust and heavy enough not to forget it is there.The phone signal is good,even without using the HSDPA - 3.5g connection.The screen, although small, is more than adequate for reading texts, customising features etc.The colours are nice, bright & clear.The internet functions start up quickly and I found the pages clear & easy to read.The phone offers plenty of functions which all seem to work well. The e-compass works very well and is quick to start, with it having spot on reliability every time.Google maps works very well and again is clear and easy to read.The music function is good with nice sound, there are options to view music videos & other songs from the artist you are listening to.The texting keyboard is small, but with a little practice it is simple to get your fingers in the right position for the letters, although mistakes can sometimes be made, but are easy to rectify if you are looking at what you are doing.As an Android phone,many apps can be downloaded if wanted, the onboard memory is small, but Micro sd cards up to 32gb can be used.The battery life of this phone is good, it takes about 2 to 3 hours to fully charge and with using the basic functions, it will last a couple of days,if the 3.5 g connection and various other extra functions are turned off, the charge will last for longer.I am still happy with my purchase of this phone, and although it has many functions I do not use now,they are there for the future if required.

So, lets jump right into this review. I am ASTOUNDED by this device and how much bang you get for your buck! I bought this phone for my Dad, who was itching to get a smartphone. Say you are in the same situation I was in, and are also looking for a new phone for your dad. It needs to have all the mod cons. A fancy android OS that runs a large part of the of the words app ecosystem, but it needs to be tough and rugged because your Dad could easily break it, but most of all, he doesn't need a supercharged device with dual core processors that cost 350+. You may have seen the Samsung Galaxy XCover, Motorola Defy and Defy+, the JCB Toughphone and a few others, but the price ranges 200+. I will tell you now, LOOK NO FURTHER! This phone is WAY more than what you pay for. Let me outline the specs.

Single Core 600MHZ Processor (which may not seem very powerful, but it surprisingly is)
512MB Of RAM (Which is more than enough for a device of this caliber)
Large Battery Boasting 1650Mah Of Juice (thats typically the mah of large dual core expensive phones)
Wi-Fi (so you can download apps, browse the web, etc on your wireless router at home)
3MP Camera and LED Flash, also used for the torch (which is a pretty decent camera for the price you pay) and front facing VGA camera (for video calls and face mirror)
3.2inch capacitive multi-touchscreen with a resolution of 320x480 and pip (pixels per inch) of 180 (which means the screen is responsive and crystal clear)
Expandable Memory Of Up To 32GB With A Micro SD Slot
MP3, Internet Radio, FM Radio Player, with a 3.5mm jack so you can plug in any headphones that use the same jack (3.5 is the standard and is widely used)
Bluetooth 3.0
Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread with Motoblur (The most widely used version of android which has been tweaked by motorlola in their motoblur software.
Dust Proof and Water Resistant

This phone may not seem to have the amazing specifications of current generation devices, so I was skeptical at first to see how it would perform. When I booted up the device and started using it, it was pleasantly surprising. The phone set up quickly and easily and prompted me to import all contacts from the sim card into the phone straight after setting up. Motorola has put in some lovely animations that work amazingly smooth and fluid. The phone easily tackle the user interface and opens small light applications quickly with no problem (like phone, calendar, messages, settings etc)

This phone comes with some motorola applications, which includes a pedometer which you can set. It comes with a torch app and Music+ app that downloads lyrics from songs you have if it can, and also connects to internet radio. You can use live wallpapers on this phone, but I found when there were a lot of widgets on the home screen the performance did degrade. However, if you only need a few widgets and not fill up all 7 of the available home screens, there should be no problems.

After seeing the impressive UI, I decided to test how much power this phone really had and downloaded some 3D games to see how they would perform. The first game I tried was Raging Thunder 2, a 3D racing simulator that is processor intensive. Having played the game first on my Mums HTC Wildfire S (which has very similar specs, including a 600MHZ processor and 512Mb of Ram) which was able to run the game, but lagged occasionally. Booting into the game on the DEFY Mini, I had a huge shock. The device swung into action and delivered a butter smooth 3 dimensional gaming experience that I had never seen on a device of its spec. The game was smooth throughout the race, and the responsiveness of the inbuilt accelerometer was very sharp, easily reading the device tilting and controlling the game. Next I opened up a game widely used amongst phone testers/reviews and gamers alike, a game called Riptide GP. This game is another racing game, but features jet ski's. This game is so popular because of the realistic water physics and beautiful graphics. It takes a very huge toll on the phones processor, as it is rendering complex 3D graphics and complex physics at the same time. This game also has been 'Optimised for Tegra 3', which is the latest in mobile graphic technology being used on 450+ phones and tablets, because it brings astounding graphical performance. Having my doubts, I opened up the app expecting the device to be a jerky mess. Again, I was astounded, the device glided through the game with flying colours. I got al the physical responsiveness form the water bobbing my jet ski up and down, and the graphics were not to bad either. The game has some extra graphic options which allow you to change the quality of the graphics in order to get a smoother game or better looking game. The game was automatically set to full. However, there is a compromise to the gaming experience. The graphics themselves, are not super high quality as you would find on a better device, and because of this they are able to be played on these cheaper phones. For someone like my dad, or an elder, they would probably not care about the graphics and just be so happy they can actually play a 3D game on a phone this small. Don't get me wrong, the graphics still look good, but they are not as good as they would be if they were played on a expensive phone.

So, for £80, you get a water resistant, dust proof, shock proof tough rugged phone that takes full advantage of its hardware and delivers great gaming performance for novice, casual gamers. Heck! Even more experienced gamers would be happy enough to play a few games this if they didn't have access to their higher end consoles and devices. Ive read a few reviews that don't give the device the credit it deserves, but I've given you an honest review. I myself, am a very techy person who has high standards when it comes to android phones, and with my experience with them, they just simply are not up to par with the price they go for. With this device, its surpassed all my expectations and preconceptions, and is a very good quality product for the price you pay. If you have any other questions, please comment :) I hope this review will help you.

This is an extremely robust phone - dust, water, and shock proof, with plugs and covers for every port and hole. This makes it very suitable for children, or for anyone who needs their phone to survive an earthquake.

It runs on Android, which is not as easy to use as iOS (as featured on iPhones) but is still relatively straightforward to use. However, this phone isn't really built for speed, and is quite chuggy compared to some of the flashier models available, like the Samsung Galaxy S2. However it has all the features you would expect of a smartphone - Internet, media player, email etc on top of your normal functions like text and of course phoning. I found the phone to be very clear to use for making calls and it's easy to text. The screen is a bit smaller than I am used to so I had to hold it horizontally which makes the keyboard a bit bigger. When rotating the screen the phone was a bit slow but comparable to other phones at this price that I have used.

The phone does require some setting up out of the box, but this is always to be expected- entering contact info, email details etc all takes time and some limited technical understanding. But this is always the case with smartphones.

If you are considering this as a first step in to smartphones from an older model, it is definitely the way to go. However don't push a button and expect instant reactions - the processor in this phone is simply too slow to produce a pc-like experience. As a solidly built and reliable phone with the extras of a smartphone through, it's great,