A while ago I received an email from online retailer advertising a Motorola Defy Mini on a sim free basis.
The marketing for the phone includes,
"Water-resistant, dust-proof and with a scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass display"
With the dry!! summer we have been having I thought the phone would be ideal for outdoor use if it happened to rain whilst I was out.
My previous phone was a HTC Desire (now sent off to be recycled!). The battery was starting to go and the display was pretty crap outdoors if the sun tried to come out.
Did the usual online research to see if I could get it cheaper than advertised in the email. Managed to get it on the very well know auction website for £97.00p including P and P. So a saving of over £57.00p!
So today was the first proper day testing it for taking pictures, video and using the Endomondo app. As the sun decided to make an appearance it was a good test to see how or if! I could see the display.
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| Taken in shade on the canal near Congleton |
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Taken in direct sunlight
The phone's display was a lot better than on the HTC Desire in the sun. |
Next I decided to try out the camera on the phone. I also had my camera with me, a Panasonic DMC-FT1 for comparison on both pictures and video.
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Bosley Cloud in the distance
The above was taken at normal zoom (camera on it is a 3 MP one)
Tried the zoom on the camera, 4 times maximum and as you can see the result wasn't very good!!
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Below I had to take 2 pictures to fit the canal path in shot using the Defy Mini.
Whereas the DMC-FT1 with its 28mm wide lens I could fit both the tree and path in one shot.
Greens on the camera appear a lot darker than on the phone. Bandstand in the distance in Congleton Park.
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| Camera |
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Phone
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Comparison video clips can be found on YouTube:
Motorola Defy Mini
I found the speaker a lot better on the Defy Mini than on the HTC Desire. Updates for when I'd covered another km on Endomondo were useful.
As Endomondo uses GPS to track where you go you can expect the battery to go down somewhat.
For most of the time out I only had the GPS on, I just turned on the mobile data to refresh and upload my Endomondo stats.
GPS was on for 2 hours 15 minutes and the battery was showing 65% left. Will have to see if a full charge can last 6 to 7 hours with just GPS on.
Pros:
- Compact size, easier to hold in my hand or stash in my pocket than the previous HTC Desire
- Volume seems louder than the Desire
- Display better than the Desire in bright sunlight
Cons:
- Poor digital zoom
- Video quality reminding me of 70s footage rather than the current decade!
I need to test the phone when it decides to rain!! again and see how long the GPS lasts. So will do another post in the future on how I'm getting on with the phone.
It's a shame the camera and video camera let the phone down. If you want a water resistant and dust-proof phone Sony have recently released the Sony Xperia Go phone. It's got a 5 MP camera and does 720P HD video.
My current phone contract doesn't run out until next March so will see if the phone is available on my network provider. If it isn't the phone should of come down in price so I could sell my upgrade phone and put the money towards the Sony one!!
So for now I'll be carrying both phone and camera if the weather is fairly decent!
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