This year rugged phone maker Bullitt Group announced a partnership with Motorola to bring rugged Motorola-branded phones to market. Now the first one has arrived: the Motorola Defy is a waterproof, dustproof, drop-proof smartphone with a 5,000 mAh battery, mid-range specs and a mid-range price tag.

It goes on sale next week in select European and South American countries for €325 ($388).

The phone features an IP68 dust and water resistance rating and it’s MIL-STD-810H tested. Motorola says it has reinforced corners and should be able to survive a drop from heights of up to 1.8 meters (5.9 feet).

You can also submerge it in water at depths up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) for up to 35 minutes. But if it falls in saltwater, the company recommends rinsing the device and its USB and headphone ports to avoid corrosion. The phone can be washed with soap, disinfectant, alcohol, or bleach.

With a 6.5 inch, 1600 x 720 pixel display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, the Motorola Defy clearly isn’t a flagship device. It also ships with Android 10, which is unfortunate at a time when Android 12 is set to launch in a few months. But an Android 11 update is said to be on the way.

The phone’s other underwhelming specs include a mono speaker and wireless capabilities that top out at WiFi 5 and 4G LTE. But on the bright side, the Motorola Defy does support Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and it has a microSD card reader and headphone jack.

Other features include a fingerprint sensor, support for 20W fast charging, an 8MP front-facing camera, and three rear cameras (48MP primary, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro).

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3 replies on “Motorola Defy is a rugged smartphone (that’s not actually made by Motorola)”

  1. The 720p display is a deal killer for me. Setting aside “Rugged” for a moment, $388 for a phone with a Snapdragon 662, a lousy 720p display, and 4/64GB seems steep. Compare: Motorola Moto G Stylus 2021, 4/128GB $280 4/64GB $230 4/32GB $190, 2400p x 1080p display, Snapdragon 678, 4000mAh battery. “Rugged” can’t really cost $158 more; without some gouging that is. Here are the full specs on the Moto G Stylus 2021, it’s a nice phone for the money and no useless 5G to grind the battery down:

    https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g_stylus_(2021)-10583.php

  2. Nothing special, but probably one of the cheapest Motorola phones with NFC.
    Of course, if they sell it in the US they’ll remove that…

  3. Disappointing. Looks like part of the back broke off.
    3 rounded corners (good for strength) and one rectangular 🙂
    Big bezels, yet cut out notch in the display for the selfie camera 🙂
    The 2 x 2MP cameras (depth and macro) is total useless stupidity.
    Better have a wide-angle cam on a rugged phone.

    Unlike Motorola (Lenovo), Samsung haven’t stop making rugged phones
    Xcover 5 (2021) and Xcover Pro (2020) are better then Defy 2021.

    There are some shady chinese brands too: Blackview, Doogee, Ulefone …

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