Motorola Defy (2021) review

Android 10 with some Moto flair on top

Right off the bat, the Motorola Defy (2021) ships with a slightly dated Android 10 OS. An update to Android 11 is apparently already in the works, but with Android 12 just around the corner the phone may never be fully up to speed. In typical Motorola fashion, the experience here clean and close to stock AOSP. Motorola has a host of various extras and value-added features sprinkled on top, but in a pretty non-obtrusive manner. The Defy doesn't really get the full Moto feature set as seen on devices like the Moto G30 or G100. We'll mention the particulars as they come, but one notable major omission is support for Motorola's new "Ready For" platform. In fact, we didn't manage to get any form of video output from the phone's Type-C port.

The majority of the proprietary features are housed within the Moto app. The first category is personalization allowing you to choose the icon shapes, the quick toggles appearance, the accent colors and the font. There is also a wide selection of wallpapers, the same ones you'd find in the Google Wallpapers app, plus some Moto-specific interactive ones.

Moto App • Personalization

Then come the gestures. The karate chop motion that turns on and off the flashlight is here, along with the twisting motion that launches the camera app. Both work even when the device is locked. The lift-to-unlock gesture works well with the face unlock as it unlocks the device as soon as you pick it up and look at the screen.

Referring back to the Moto G100, there are some omissions from this menu on the Motorola Defy (2021). Swipe-to-split seems to be one of them, as well as Power touch - the nifty shortcut menu that can be triggered by double-tapping the power button.

Gestures

Then there are Peek Display and Attentive Display. The former works as a second-best alternative to the Always-on display lighting up the screen when it detects motion that's close to the phone or when you pick it up. Once you've received some kind of notification, you can tap on it and see the message itself and even interact with it from the lock screen. Attentive Display disables the screen timeout as long as there's a face looking at the screen. Pretty useful when reading long articles, though depending on your setting you may scroll often enough for the screen not to lock anyway.

Display

The Moto Tips section is meant to house guides and instructions. While Android 10 doesn't have nearly as many new features that might need explaining to the user as Android 11, there are still some interesting things to go over. Some highlights Motorola chose to go over are gesture navigation, dark mode and notification management, as well as the enhanced security features of Android 10. All of these come standard with the Android core. There is also the Family Link feature for parental controls.

Moto tips

The Motorola Defy lacks the battery saving feature of the Moto G30 that would learn your usual charging routine and then only charge the phone up to 80%, keep it there for as long as possible and top-up to 100% shortly before you are scheduled to unplug. It also can't cap max battery charge to 80% if the phone detects that it has been charging for more than 3 days straight. Presumably those will be included when the Defy catches up to the G30 and gets Android 11.

Missing advanced battery charging features

There is nothing too extravagant or out of place with the overall UI on the Motorola Defy beyond that. You pretty much get a clean AOSP experience all around.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notifications • Quick toggles

All things considered on a software level the Defy (2021) is clearly a Motorola phone, with all of the specifics that stem from that pedigree. A clean, near-AOSP experience is a major draw for many users and the Defy delivers on that front. However, the elephant in the room is the outdated Android 10 version that ships with the phone. We feel that many of the advanced Moto features absent from the Motorola Defy might be related to the older ROM. Hopefully, once an Android 11 update drops, the Motorola Defy will get up to speed with its peers.

On the upside even in its current form everything works smoothly and even though the Snapdragon 662 is far from a powerhouse, the Motorola Defy breezes through everyday tasks with ease. Which leads us nicely to the performance section.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Motorola Defy is powered by the Snapdragon 662 chipset, a midrange piece of silicon introduced in 2020 and built on the 11nm process. It features an octa-core CPU in a 4+4 configuration with Kryo 260 Gold cores in the high-performance cluster (Cortex-A73-based) and Kryo 260 Silver ones (Cortex-A53-based) for less demanding tasks. The graphics department is handled by the Adreno 610 GPU.

Unlike the G30 that gets the same chipset, the Motorola Defy comes in a single memory variant - 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. The latter is expandable via microSD, though you do have to sacrifice one of your two SIM slots. It should be noted that the Moto G30 can be had with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Let's kick things off with GeekBench and some pure CPU numbers. There is no point in beating about the bush here, the Snapdragon 662 and consequently the Motorola Defy don't really excell at computing power. You can easily get better performance at this price point, but then you'll be losing all the ruggedness and that really misses the whole point of the phone.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  2860
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  1812
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  1796
• Realme 8 5G
  1784
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1719
• Realme 8
  1690
• Realme 8 Pro
  1678
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1673
• Motorola Moto G50
  1620
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1599
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576
• Poco M3
  1398
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  1354
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1277
• Motorola Moto G30
  1265
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  1144
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1034
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  495

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  950
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  641
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Realme 8 5G
  569
• Realme 8 Pro
  566
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  560
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  560
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  534
• Realme 8
  533
• Motorola Moto G50
  505
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  505
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  361
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  314
• Poco M3
  308
• Motorola Moto G30
  306
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  247
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  169
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  131

As far as positives go, it is great to see that the Motorola Defy is at least utilizing its Snapdragon 662 chipset fully, as evidenced by the similar results from the Motorola G30 and the Poco M3, also rocking the same chip. Also, the Snapdragon 662 has the Snapdragon 450, 460, as well as the MediaTek Helio P35 and for the most part, the G80 beat in CPU terms. Any higher-tier Qualcomm or MediaTek chip, like the entire Dimensity line, however, is significantly more potent in CPU terms.

The compound AnTuTu tells a very similar story.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Poco F3
  631850
• Motorola Moto G100
  556137
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  318672
• Realme 8 5G
  302059
• Realme 8
  298328
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  290172
• Realme 8 Pro
  286666
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  242155
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  226561
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  218788
• Poco M3
  177904
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  177314
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  174332
• Motorola Moto G30
  170968
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  107189
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  90811

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  681559
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  391770
• Realme 8 5G
  361505
• Realme 8
  357488
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  294251
• Motorola Moto G50
  286916
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  223188
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  222125
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  164592

The Adreno 610 is a pretty entry-level GPU as well. Once again, we can see the Motorola Defy make proper use of its available chipset and utilize it fully, but that's about the only praise we can offer. Even in the easiest OpenGL ES 3.0 Manhattan test we still consistently run on review units, the Motorola Defy struggles to reach 20fps. That is at 1080p in off-screen mode.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  128
• Poco X3 Pro
  102
• Motorola Moto G50
  65
• Realme 8
  53
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  46
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  45
• Realme 8 Pro
  43
• Realme 8 5G
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  32
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  24
• Motorola Moto G30
  20
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  19
• Poco M3
  19
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  9.3

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Motorola Moto G100
  89
• Realme 8
  48
• Motorola Moto G50
  40
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  40
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  40
• Realme 8 Pro
  38
• Realme 8 5G
  35
• Motorola Moto G30
  34
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  31
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  25
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  19
• Poco M3
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  16

The HD+ native resolution of the display on the Motorola Defy (2021) provides considerable advantage in terms of on-screen fps, meaning that even though it doesn't have the most capable GPU it can still adequately drive the less demanding display.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  91
• Poco X3 Pro
  75
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  33
• Realme 8
  33
• Motorola Moto G50
  29
• Realme 8 Pro
  28
• Realme 8 5G
  25
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  15
• Motorola Moto G30
  14
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  13
• Poco M3
  13
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  9.5
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  7.7
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  6.1

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  79
• Poco X3 Pro
  67
• Motorola Moto G50
  53
• Realme 8 Pro
  31
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  29
• Realme 8
  29
• Motorola Moto G30
  26
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  25
• Realme 8 5G
  22
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  21
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  12
• Poco M3
  11

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  56
• Poco X3 Pro
  45
• Realme 8
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  19
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  19
• Realme 8 Pro
  18
• Motorola Moto G50
  16
• Realme 8 5G
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  9.3
• Motorola Moto G30
  7.3
• Poco M3
  7.2
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  7
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  5.2
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.4
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.3

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  47
• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Motorola Moto G50
  27
• Realme 8
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  17
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 8 Pro
  16
• Motorola Moto G30
  13
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  13
• Realme 8 5G
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  12
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  9.2
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  7.9
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  6.1
• Poco M3
  5.9
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  5

As usual, it is also worth noting that these are purposefully hard and artificial loads that are not representative of how an actual game engine behaves. Particularly a modern one. Mobile games tend to be highly optimized and run on a very wide range of hardware, in order to have the broadest user base possible. We had no issues running any number of casual to moderate games on the Motorola Defy.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  33
• Poco X3 Pro
  27
• Motorola Moto G50
  20
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  13
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Realme 8
  11
• Motorola Moto G30
  8.7
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  8.5
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  7.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  4.4
• Poco M3
  4.1
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.8
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.5

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  31
• Poco X3 Pro
  26
• Motorola Moto G50
  19
• Realme 8
  12
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  11
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Motorola Moto G30
  9.1
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  8.8
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  8.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  5
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  4.6
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.5
• Poco M3
  2.8

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  23
• Poco X3 Pro
  18
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  7.6
• Realme 8
  7.5
• Realme 8 Pro
  7.2
• Motorola Moto G50
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.1
• Poco M3
  4.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.5
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  2.9
• Motorola Moto G30
  2.8
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  2.7
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.2
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  1.1

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  21
• Poco X3 Pro
  17
• Realme 8
  7.7
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  7.5
• Realme 8 Pro
  7
• Motorola Moto G50
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.7
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  3.3
• Motorola Moto G30
  2.8
• Poco M3
  2.8
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  2.7
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.5
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  1.2

There seems to be no noticeable performance loss with using the Vulkan API either, which once again proves Motorola did a great job implementing and utilizing the Snapdragon 662 chipset all-around.

3DMark shows a lineup quite similar to that provided by AnTuTu for overall performance.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  2801
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2638
• Realme 8
  2610
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2391
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1323
• Motorola Moto G30
  1185
• Poco M3
  1175
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  1169
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  857
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  438
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  365

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme 8
  2639
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  2617
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2509
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2257
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1372
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1371
• Motorola Moto G30
  1142
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  1112
• Poco M3
  1106
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  819
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  612
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  489

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G100
  4114
• Poco X3 Pro
  3401
• Realme 8
  1486
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1185
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G
  1113
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1104
• Realme 8 5G
  1104
• Realme 8 Pro
  1051
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  686
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  482
• Motorola Moto G30
  389
• Motorola Defy (2021)
  369
• Poco M3
  368
• Motorola Moto G10 Power
  254
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  113

As we established from the start the Motorola Defy (2021) doesn't claim to be a great performer or a gaming powerhouse. All it aims to do is provide adequate day-to-day performance and the Snapdragon 662 does its job. That's enough for it to fare excellently within the rugged phone realm.