Develop Bugs

Motorola Defy worth buying?

Hello guys,
I currently have my good, old, HTC Hero but I think it's time for a change. Is the Motorola Defy worth buying?
I am interested in the following:
1. is it easy to have custom roms?
2. any chance to have a working Gingerbread ROM?
3. are those 512 Mb of RAM enough for these days?
4. should I consider buying Defy or should I just look for another phone?
What's the best Quadrant score you know for Motorola Defy? My record is 428.
Thanks!

If you can wait, I suggest getting the Motorola ATRIX when it comes out at the end of February.
Swyped from my HTC Desire running LeeDrOiD 2.3d with Tapatalk.

I can wait, my Hero is pretty decent at this time. Hummm, but what if the ATRIX will cost 3x or even 4x more than Defy ( I could get a Defy for 240 Euro / 333 AUD )? What's the price that ATRIX is supposed to have at launch?

kastraverde said:
Hummm, but what if the ATRIX will cost 3x or even 4x more than Defy ( I could get a Defy for 240 Euro / 333 AUD )? What's the price that ATRIX is supposed to have at launch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Supposedly $599 off contract with AT&T, but it won't be outdated for quite a while yet
.
Swyped from my HTC Desire running LeeDrOiD 2.3d with Tapatalk.

Hummm. I hope it will be available worldwide. When I bought my Hero I did so just because my desired phone at that moment, Motorola Droid, was not available in Europe. Right after I bought my Hero, Motorola launched Milestone. I kinda regret not buying the Milestone.
Anyway, my first 4 questions at the first post are still still waiting for some answers, guys. Thanks!

kastraverde said:
Hello guys,
I currently have my good, old, HTC Hero but I think it's time for a change. Is the Motorola Defy worth buying?
I am interested in the following:
1. is it easy to have custom roms?
2. any chance to have a working Gingerbread ROM?
3. are those 512 Mb of RAM enough for these days?
4. should I consider buying Defy or should I just look for another phone?
What's the best Quadrant score you know for Motorola Defy? My record is 428.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think the ram would be enough for a while, I've seen people posting quadrant scores 1100-1590, the other plus side is the price and the ruggedness of the phone, I'm considering one myself.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

This phone has done nothing but surprise me. i have a samsung epic that is mine personally and the defy is actually owned by my work. This phone easily went head to head with the epic in performance (until the epic got ext 4 hack), and in some cases has actually performed better (ex dungeon defender refused to install on the epic for a long time but have been playing on the defy since it was released).
The only down side is the locked bootloader that makes custom roms (including a GB rom) almost impossible, however there is a great group on here that is willing to help you customize the phone.

kastraverde said:
I am interested in the following:
1. is it easy to have custom roms?
2. any chance to have a working Gingerbread ROM?
3. are those 512 Mb of RAM enough for these days?
4. should I consider buying Defy or should I just look for another phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Not really, due to the encrypted bootloader - it is possible but it makes things much more difficult than on other handsets.
2. Almost certainly not until the bootloader can be decrypted in some way or Motorola release it themselves.
3. Yeah, plenty.
4. You're the only person who can answer that.

Brumble said:
Think the ram would be enough for a while, I've seen people posting quadrant scores 1100-1590, the other plus side is the price and the ruggedness of the phone, I'm considering one myself.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Mini Info, and my RAM is at a constant 50MB (sometimes less) out of an available 476MB. This phone really knows how to handle stuff. Get it!

512 mb ram is enough to run every application
Standart Quadrant Score is 800 ~ 1000
I see a Guy with a Sense Rom, JIT and OC to 1200 mhz he get 2000+

Hell yeah
sent from my DEFY using XDA App

Yes. Very nice device.

i have an HTC Desire but we got the kids Defys .... must say im very impressed with the defy ... go for it

I got my Defy a couple of weeks ago having spent many hours flashing and re-flashing my Hero with the fantastic roms and kernels built by erasmux, elelinux, radu, Cronos and the others. I have to say I was initially a bit disappointed that I couldn't do the same with my Defy. I did root it and started to tweak it a bit, but to be honest it's such a brilliant phone that there isn't the same imperative as there was with the Hero. For the money you can't get better, and I'm amazed that it's not more widely known. If you read the reviews it's been universally admired, and I've not been disappointed. The screen is outstanding, it's as tough as old boots and it flies, even with Motoblur on it. And if you don't like Motoblur, just remove the widgets and you'll hardly know it's there. It's also a good size - more manageable than some of those 'high-end' phones (Desire HD, Samsung Galaxy S etc) and just as capable.
Can't recommend it highly enough.

shorticus said:
I got my Defy a couple of weeks ago having spent many hours flashing and re-flashing my Hero with the fantastic roms and kernels built by erasmux, elelinux, radu, Cronos and the others. I have to say I was initially a bit disappointed that I couldn't do the same with my Defy. I did root it and started to tweak it a bit, but to be honest it's such a brilliant phone that there isn't the same imperative as there was with the Hero. For the money you can't get better, and I'm amazed that it's not more widely known. If you read the reviews it's been universally admired, and I've not been disappointed. The screen is outstanding, it's as tough as old boots and it flies, even with Motoblur on it. And if you don't like Motoblur, just remove the widgets and you'll hardly know it's there. It's also a good size - more manageable than some of those 'high-end' phones (Desire HD, Samsung Galaxy S etc) and just as capable.
Can't recommend it highly enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it some time and the development of roms will pick up because its such a great phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Brumble said:
Give it some time and the development of roms will pick up because its such a great phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There'll still be the bootloader issue though.
Until Motorola follow through on their promise to find an alternative solution to encrypting the bootloader that's more hacker-friendly, if indeed they ever bother to do so, we'll be stuck with custom ROMs that are based on the same version of Android as the official ROMs.

Step666 said:
There'll still be the bootloader issue though.
Until Motorola follow through on their promise to find an alternative solution to encrypting the bootloader that's more hacker-friendly, if indeed they ever bother to do so, we'll be stuck with custom ROMs that are based on the same version of Android as the official ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but like i said give it time, nothing is going to happen in an instant.

I just got a quadrant score of 897 running at 1ghz. Nothing major. I could get 1500s easy if my gf didn't install so many games anyway, the phone is worth buying and is waterproof as it claims to be
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App

How does Defy handles Flash?

I would say no, if you can wait then wait a bit!
Encrypted boot-loader means you have to hope Motorola release updates. Wait and see of Motorola change their policies about bootloader, they *may* do it after that youtube comment went wild all over the internet and they responded, but they may not either.
I will never ever buy a phone that is locked out this way. Right now all new phones released by Sony Ericcson and Motorola have locked bootloader. So if I were you I'd stick to HTC or Samsung.
I mean look at something like HTC HD2 or HTC Desire, these phones are now pretty old but have multiple gingerbread ROMs, cause they are fully hackable. of course anything that is a Nexus is also hackable and the Galaxy S range from Samsung is good also.
If I needed a phone right now, I'd be looking at the following:
- Google Nexus S
- Samsung Galaxy S
- HTC Desire HD
- HTC Desire Z
They are all known to be hackable and recent models and will perform better than a Hero.

Question/Opinion about the EVO 3D

hey all
i just wanted to get some of your feedback regarding the Evo 3D and the love/lack of love it will get from the development community.
I love the specs on it, but the new 3D technology and display seems like it could be hell AOSP devs to create roms for.
For example, it took nearly 9 months to get 4G fully working on CM (which i love and appreciate b/c it's been my daily driver since my G1). So i feel like the same type of delay would be in effect for all the new technology the 3D will have, such as the dual 5MP cameras.
Anyways, i could be completely off on my analysis of this.
The thing is, i would consider an upgrade to the 3D purely based off the dual core processor and other specs. But, if i can't have a functional, nice CM build for it, i honestly don't think i would go near it.
opinions?

bweisholtz said:
hey all
i just wanted to get some of your feedback regarding the Evo 3D and the love/lack of love it will get from the development community.
I love the specs on it, but the new 3D technology and display seems like it could be hell AOSP devs to create roms for.
For example, it took nearly 9 months to get 4G fully working on CM (which i love and appreciate b/c it's been my daily driver since my G1). So i feel like the same type of delay would be in effect for all the new technology the 3D will have, such as the dual 5MP cameras.
Anyways, i could be completely off on my analysis of this.
The thing is, i would consider an upgrade to the 3D purely based off the dual core processor and other specs. But, if i can't have a functional, nice CM build for it, i honestly don't think i would go near it.
opinions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am certainly no developer but the existence of the Nexus S 4G should help to iron out any 4G issues that are left and make 4G available in any EVO 3D AOSP builds. AFAIK, I believe the biggest reason behind the delay in 4G for the EVO was that they basically had to build it from the ground up since they didn't have any AOSP source to modify for it.
As for the developer support, I was wondering the same. I really want the EVO 3D but I don't want to get stuck in a position like all the Epic users are with little developer and no CM support. I hate waiting but I might wait to see how much love each of the new phones gets before deciding which one to go with.
Chances are that since the Nexus is supposed to be released first and there is already a version available, that will be the phone that many people flock to. I had actually considered PM'ing a couple of my favorite developers (Toast, Flipzmode, Myn) and see what phones they were leaning toward. I think that the ease of rooting might also be a factor. If HTC and/or Samsung end up locking the phones down real tight, that might end up swaying some people one way or another.

Check out the Evo 3d forum...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1095
They just made it a few days ago so I don't think it shows up on the xda app yet.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

xHausx said:
Check out the Evo 3d forum...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1095
They just made it a few days ago so I don't think it shows up on the xda app yet.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just looked at it, it looks like joeykrim and toastcfh are in which means, at the very least, the thing will probably be rooted before it's released. And if anyone can get the 3D thing figured out, TeamWin can.

Defy+ vs SE Xperia Mini Pro and SE Ray / Recommended ROM for Defy+

How does the Defy+ compare to Xperia Mini Pro and Ray phones. I want to recommend to my cousing sister.
We looked at Ace, Wildfire S, Xperia series, Ray, Galsxy SLCD (I have this one)
Defy+ seems to have good features at a fair price. Is the phone good?

jesrani said:
How does the Defy+ compare to Xperia Mini Pro and Ray phones. I want to recommend to my cousing sister.
We looked at Ace, Wildfire S, Xperia series, Ray, Galsxy SLCD (I have this one)
Defy+ seems to have good features at a fair price. Is the phone good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think below the 20k range Defy plus is the best .. for the features and its cost..
It counts only if u are ready to root ur mobile ..
Because Motorola sucks in giving software updates and most probably it will remain in GB only ..
Apart from these ..its the best ..Life proof

My vote goes for DEFY+, too, because of the superior build quality.
Besides that, no official ICS update is a minus, but CM9 will be available soon enough. On the stock Gingerbread, DEFY+ does everything and opens everything. Really, everything works! That's why I loved it from the beginning.
Other than stock, there are some stable CM and MIUI versions available for it and they will improve the experience further, with good looks and better speed, you know how it goes...
One more huge plus is that "Lifeproof" feature It's true. (Read the short story in my signature )
Cheers!

@kanna91 and @niksy+, thanks for the replies.
My sis is not going to change ROMS, maybe I can do it for her once initially. I have experience with flashing my Galaxy SLCD, don;t know if this would be similar.
Which ROM is recommended?

I would advise you to try the latest stable CM7.1.0-11. That's what I use and it's stable for the average user. (no need for troubleshooting skills and such)
I cannot say anything about MIUI or similar.

I don't think your sister is a great gamer. The stock ROM is enough. Is not as speedy as Cm7 but it has less bugs. And the battery is better. I tried CM7 but I come back to my default ROM (in Romania 2.3.5 it the official one). Just root it, delete 7player, task manager, cardio trainer and zinio and install RAM manager from android marker. The free version has just balance profile but is enought. Is not a app killer because this drains bat but optimise the RAM usage (less lag). Believe me, it works. The developer is one of us, a XDA member.
For CM7, you should wait for the final version.
For a girl, Xperia Ray looks better than Defy. I asked my girlfriend and she told me that. For me, as a male, Defy looks better. Also, Ray will receive ICS update...official. But that's not very important for a girl: she will want a good looking phone, without functionality problems.

A girl, huh? My girlfriend likes my DEFY+, but wants a RAZR MAXX
Best ROMs I know about are MIUI Pikachu Edition and CM White Rabbit Edition. I'm getting 3 days battery life with Pikachu.
Anyway, I don't know, really... I don't like pointing people in the wrong direction :/ I've set up my phone real nice now, but it took a while and, like you said, your sister won't be up for that...
All I can say is that DEFY(+) is a really well built phone.

If I was going to buy an Android now, I would choose a phone with unlockable bootloader,
from a brand that could guarantee upgrade for at least Ice Cream Sandwich.

Get MIUI. Chicks dig it.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App

royale1223 said:
Get MIUI. Chicks dig it.
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, would be mu recommendation as well if you want to install a ROM (alone because of the beautiful UI.design). Although there are less ROMs for the Plus (compared to the og Defy) I think the Pikachu Edition should work fine, installing ROMs on the phone is super easy.
If possible, I'd go into a store and try these phones, look which suites her needs best.
It is a nice phone with a good price, not really sexy but reliable. Speed is acceptable, camera is ok. The screen is bigger than the one one the other phones you mentioned (except Galaxy S which is better overall imho).

mrolp said:
If I was going to buy an Android now, I would choose a phone with unlockable bootloader,
from a brand that could guarantee upgrade for at least Ice Cream Sandwich.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the point: SE Xperia Ray has unlocked bootloader and official support from Cyanogen Mod too. Also, it will get ICS officially.
Defy+ is still not directed supported by XDA developers. If you install an MIUI should get the correct batt file for correct battery monitor. Pikacku edition have some stupid bugs like gallery cannot delete pictures.
My advice is to ask your sister what phone likes more (design and construction). Than purchase it. Purchasing any of them is all right. Both have vanilla roms, both are well designed and so on. Also, see that Sony Ericsson received 4 iF design awards.
I've tested a Ray before purchasing Defy+ but I preferred Defy+. Also, before it, I owned a Defy.

[Q] Buy new phone

Hi,
I'm going to buy a second phone (or actually a new first phone and degrade my Defy to second phone) but I can't choose. And I don't want any of those with huge > 4" screens (altough Xperia S is tempting) I want a cheaper one like that is smaller.
Currently I'm choosing between Nexus S and Motorola Atrix both cost about the same.
Nexus S: Looks awesome IMO. Really nice with vanilla android and good speed
Atrix: Looks ok, not much change from Defy in looks. Then we have MotoBlur, the slow crap. Altough I really like the Mail and SMS client and the awesome alarm clock. But IIRC Atrix has unlocked bootloader now so Custom ROMs are way easier to install.
Which one would you choose?

I think you should buy an atrix, its so cool, if i didn't have my defy, a atrix would have been the one
Sent from my MB525 using xda premium

I'm not impressed with the Atrix at all and with Motorola's crappy customer service and broken promisses in mind, I wouldn't buy Motorola phone ever again!

Auris 1.6 vvt-i said:
I'm not impressed with the Atrix at all and with Motorola's crappy customer service and broken promisses in mind, I wouldn't buy Motorola phone ever again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is why I'm not so motivated to buy an Atrix, the hardware looks great but not the service and the lack of updates. Especially when I consider the fact that they made Defy+ with Android 2.3 without updating the old Defy.

Maybe it's me, but I can't see a point in something.
Mostly any phone gets stock Android ROMs that work. Not official and not as quick as "developer phone" like Nexus S, but I don't see why these couple of months matter.
On the other hand, stock Android plain sucks, in any version (personally I think ICS looks like crap too). Camera, mail client, dialer, etc - they're awful. On the other hand, phones with Sense and TouchWiz have it right, thus allowing more ROM options to choose from - they have their original firmware, most likely the original firmware of more advanced phones of the same kind, and the standard AOSP/CM/MIUI.
So why would one willingly choose "developer" phone with less ROM options?

Because one would like vanilla Android, without some cheap skin from the hardware manufacturer. All these things delay updates and they're not even smoothly designed (I'm looking at you, official ICS update for Galaxy S2). But if the phone has an unlocked bootloader (or skilled developers) you can have fun trying custom ROMs anyway, so the Atrix would make Sense (pun intended).
Trimis de pe Defy CM9

http://www.knowyourmobile.com/comparisons/738034/motorola_atrix_vs_google_nexus_s.html
Atrix is supposed to be beter in terms of hard..
But...motoblur cancer AGAIN???? :S
if they could sell the atrix "as is" and then you install whatever you want...ok...
but coming from moto... i wouldnt buy another phone anymore.
And Nexus S
http://www.google.com/nexus/
Really google. Really ICS. Really awesome. ...dude that cellphone its been in the space xD i freaking love it. And you shouldnt have too much troubles with it.
If i should choose..ill go for the one being created by the ones that create the OS (at least, in this case) as in no way could i buy a redmond phone....

Please help me make a decision

Hello, I am a Sensation XL user and I have the opportunity to switch to a GNex(trade). The reason I would switch to Nexus is the SA HD screen, dual core a9cortex, better gpu, really good looking and working OS. I am currently worried about the lifespan of my SXL since it packs a single core snapdragon and a poor WVGA resolution.
The reason I wouldn't switch is a few sense goodies such as swiping to text, smartdialing, facebook integration, editing media etc. along with losing my iBeats earphones and a really good looking design.
I kept telling myself I do not want the trade but the small resolution, ugly looking fonts and icons and periodical Sense lag keeps haunting me. I don't like rooting, I like having things as stock as possible.
Please help me decide I'm very unsure what to do!

people here are trying to port Sense 4.0 on the Nexus and you're trying to get rid of it?
anyway, you should try the different Sensation 4.0.3 ROMs out there before giving up on it.
if you like plain ICS, you can have it on the Sensation as well...both phones are good. If you like Sense, wait until HTC One series comes out and sell your SXL then.
either way, you can't avoid rooting...you can install the ARHD or InsertCoin's ROMs which are as stock as possible on HTC but definately faster...no Sense lag.
you still have a lot to explore on your phone
LE: nevermind, the ROMs i mentioned above are for Sensation, not S XL
but i think HTC released official ICS for you?

zerozoneice said:
people here are trying to port Sense 4.0 on the Nexus and you're trying to get rid of it?
anyway, you should try the different Sensation 4.0.3 ROMs out there before giving up on it.
if you like plain ICS, you can have it on the Sensation as well...both phones are good. If you like Sense, wait until HTC One series comes out and sell your SXL then.
either way, you can't avoid rooting...you can install the ARHD or InsertCoin's ROMs which are as stock as possible on HTC but definately faster...no Sense lag.
you still have a lot to explore on your phone
LE: nevermind, the ROMs i mentioned above are for Sensation, not S XL
but i think HTC released official ICS for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not really that good with the whole root/flash s-off stuff. Even if I dug in this new universe I know there are plenty of problems since there isn't anything official about these homebrew roms. I like my phone but I'm not pleased with the low res and choppy user interface. Maybe Nexus doesn't have the problems htc has with the sense ui (even though my XL has sense 3.5 which should be theoretically faster). My next phone will not be an htc since i've had only htcs since 2010 and am fed up with the looks of it.

G-XtremE said:
I'm not really that good with the whole root/flash s-off stuff. Even if I dug in this new universe I know there are plenty of problems since there isn't anything official about these homebrew roms. I like my phone but I'm not pleased with the low res and choppy user interface. Maybe Nexus doesn't have the problems htc has with the sense ui (even though my XL has sense 3.5 which should be theoretically faster). My next phone will not be an htc since i've had only htcs since 2010 and am fed up with the looks of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I would go with the galaxy nexus if I were you. It basically has everything you are looking for. And if you decide to learn to root/unlock boot loaders and what not, the nexus is the easiest to learn with (my opinion) . I think if you go with the galaxy nexus , its a win-win. Good luck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium