Motorola DEFY vs. Nokia X6
It's a clash of apples and oranges this time around as we pit Motorola's Defy – the hardy, life-proof Android – against Nokia's X6 in all of its musical glory. Both devices have plenty to offer, but which one will come out on top where it counts?
Build Quality
Nokia have a long and storied history of building truly great devices and the X6, even as a touch-screen device is no exception. It feels solid, with no creaks or cracks when it's gripped, and handles pleasantly. The Motorola isn't a slouch in the build department either though. It's touted as life-proof by Motorola and this title is earned by it being dust-proof, water resistant and shock-proof, so it doesn't matter how much you abuse it, this little device will keep on truckin'. We figured it would take something special to usurp Nokia in this round, but the Defy managed it.
Winner - Motorola Defy
User Interface
The Nokia X6 comes packed with Symbian 60, which is as functional now as it was when it was introduced in 2001. Nokia have polished the UI somewhat since then though, and it now looks a little better than it did at launch. Unfortunately all the polishing in the world wasn't going to allow S60 to surpass the Defy and its Google Android OS, which is a truly modern and open mobile OS. It comes with plenty of functionality and all the apps you can shake a stick at in the Android Market.
Winner - Motorola Defy
Multimedia
The Motorola comes with a nice 3.7-inch touchscreen, which makes viewing photos and videos a pleasure. The X6's display is few mm smaller at 3.2-inches but is equally as impressive for viewing your captured media, the X6 however has the added bonus of its outstanding audio quality and 'Comes with Music' subscription, which will allow you to populate your 8GB with music at no extra cost. When it comes to movies the Defy has the upper hand though, with added codec support for more popular formats like H264 and MP4, making this a tough round to call. Though after much deliberation the win goes, once again, to the Defy which, thanks to its more advanced and user friendly operating system makes consuming media that much easier.
Winner - Motorola Defy
Camera
Both of these devices come packing the breed standard 5 megapixel camera. The Defy's snapper comes with autofocus and a nice LED flash. The Nokia comes with the same pixel count but thanks to its Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual-LED flash and video light, produces much better results than the Moto. Both capture video nicely, but again the X6 nudges ahead thanks to its superior optics and clinches this round for the Finns.
Winner - Nokia X6
As we said at the start, there's a world of difference between these two devices but at this price point it's hard not to be impressed with the Motorola Defy. It's performance is exemplary and the construction really is very impressive. There's still a lot to like in the Nokia X6 but we couldn't help feeling that its sound construction and great hardware were let down by an ageing operating system which just doesn't feel up to it anymore, regardless of what popularity polls report. In spite of that particular shortcoming it still represents good value, especially when the 'Comes with Music' subscription is factored into the equation.