Motorola Defy Pro coming soon to Rogers

By Simon Sage  | Jul 17 2012 | 2:47 pm  | 9 Comments

 

Motorola Defy Pro coming soon to Rogers

Motorola has announced that the Defy Pro would be landing in Canada by way of Rogers this summer. Much liike the original Motorola Defy, this handset is built for punishment with dust, splash, and scratch resistance, except this time there's a keyboard. Here are the specs.

  • 2.7-inch 320 x 480 HVGA display with Gorilla Glass
  • Android 2.3 Gingerbread
  • 1 GHz processor
  • 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and front-facing VGA camera
  • 1700 mAh battery, 12 hours continuous use time, 13.5 days standby
  • IP67-certified (totally protected against dust, protected against immersion between 15 cm and 1 m)

Awhile back I was really interested in the Motorola Admiral, but since it never made it to the GSM side of things, there was never really an option for us Canadians. As a guy with a history with BlackBerry, I can definitely appreciate the physical keyboard - hopefully it won't be dampened by the ho-hum specifications. I could live without ICS, but a bigger battery and some impact protection would be nice. Any Canadians interested in picking this one up? Any Americans looking for something tough and entry-level with a physical keyboard?

Folks can sign up for e-mail availability notifications at Motorola Canada. 

Source: Motorola

Simon Sage Editor-at-very-large

"Blogger, gamer, giant. "

78(articles)

4(forum posts)
 

There are 9 comments. Add yours.

NordicNinja says:

Is it just me or does this like like a beefed up Blackberry Bold 9700/9800?

psar says:

If by "beefed up" you mean slower and with a lower resolution screen, then yes.

Sad, really. I like the idea of a hardware keyboard and like the BlackBerry form factor, but this is pretty weak, even moreso than RIM's offerings. An Android device with the 9900's keyboard would be wonderful: actual apps and a decent camera, along with a really good keyboard.

Lanhoj says:

A nice alternative for current Blackberry users not quite ready to ditch that look, though other than that I don't think many current Android Users would switch to this

Superguy25 says:

Reminds me of an Android version of the old Motorola Q's.

experiment626 says:

The Q9c/Q9h's had some of the best keyboards.

android2you says:

looks like blackberry

http://www.android2you.com

cjb44 says:

This looks like the perfect device for everyone who is jumping the Blackberry Ship. I miss the physical keyboard of my blackberry, but not the small screen.

CeluGeek says:

Front-facing QWERTY is still my form factor of choice. If RIM ever gets their act together and release a BlackBerry 10 smartphone with front-facing hardware keyboard, I'll be jumping ship that same day.

It's sad no Android manufacturer can come with at least one device in this form factor with decent specs! I'm not expecting the market saturation like with touch-only slabs but sheesh! Would it kill any company to release an Android device with a spacious front-facing keyboard ala Bold 9000 or Moto Q9h, but with...

* Quad-core CPU, or at least a decent dual-core LTE-capable CPU.
* A 3.5-inch screen with no less than WVGA resolution. (preferably qHD)
* At least 8 GB of internal storage and no less than 2GB available storage for app installation.
* Support for micro SD cards.
* 8 MP camera with flash and autofocus.
* Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC.
* Removable battery.
* Jelly Bean or at least ICS as unmolested as possible.

Is that really so much to ask?

dmedesha says:

It looks very much like the Admiral. I have two Admirals at the moment - a personal one and a work demo. Nice Android replacement for the BB and the demo has Sprint Direct Connect (ex-Nextel Push-to-Talk) which is a big deal at work. Unfortunately the Admiral is stuck at Gingerbread 2.3.5.

What would be nice is to root & rom the personal, wifi only device. Haven't been able to find anything on-line and am too fumble-fingered/chicken, to try it from scratch.