The Motorola Defy is water-, dust- and scratch-resistant, and the company describes it as "Australia's first summer-proof smartphone". Traditionally, ruggedised mobiles in Australia have been reserved for low-end feature phones rather than .

The Motorola Defy runs the 2.1 version of , has a 5-megapixel camera with single LED flash and a 3.7in capacitive touchscreen manufactured from "gorilla glass". It features the latest version of Motorola's MotoBlur software, which includes resizable widgets, corporate security and a battery manager.

Motorola has not announced when the Defy will be upgradeable to the 2.2 version of Android, called Froyo. Froyo adds full Flash support, built-in wireless tethering, and the ability to store third-party apps on your SD card, though the Motorola Defy already features a light version of Adobe's Flash, along with the ability to act as a 3G mobile hotspot.

The Motorola Defy is available now through Optus for $0 upfront on a $49 plan over 24 months (a total minimum cost of $1176). The plan includes $500 worth of calls, SMS and MMS value, 1.5GB of data and unlimited Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, eBay, LinkedIn and Foursquare access.