Review: Motorola Defy Mini

The Motorola Defy Mini is another small screened (3.2 inches, 480 x 320 pixels) Android powered device designed to be more rugged then your average smartphone.

Looking at the specs first, it packs what seems on paper as a small enough processor running at 600mhz with 512mbs of ram but surprisingly while using the device it doesn’t feel under powered. Ok so it’s obviously not running at dual core or quad core speeds but the device still feels smooth running Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) when compared to similarly powered devices (I’m thinking here of the Vodafone Smart series of Android devices). It’s a nice size (109 x 58.5 x 12.5 mm) although it is fairly thick and weighs in at 107g. The camera offer pics at 3MP which I think in this day and age is a little weak although it does come with an LED flash (frequently absent from a lot of budget devices). The 1650mAh battery is huge for the device and from our tests does offer great battery life. We got it to go 2 days with heavy use before it needed a charge. The device comes with the usual features we’ve now come to expect from smartphones including  wifi, bluetooth and micro USB port. It’s a 3G (HSDPA) device too.

The Defy mini is aimed at the budget end of the Android collection but is also aimed at people who need a tough phone they can rely on. It comes with Gorilla glass as well as a water resistant cover for its micro USB port. The battery cover too can be locked down with a sliding key which can be fiddly to get on and off if you need access to the battery. Motorola reports the device is water and dust resistant but for obvious reasons we weren’t able to test this to destruction. The device can be operated in portrait or landscape mode so there’s plenty of room when typing for those of you with big fingers.

Overall the device is nicely designed and feels good in the hand. It’s certainly well worth taking a look at if you’re someone  who needs a tough device or those on a budget. Sim free the device can be found for around 100 euro which is very good.

Pros:

Battery life, style, speed, price, ruggedness

Cons:

Camera, screen size