A key point might be which desire, there are several (regular one, HD, and Z).

Have you used android/smartphones before etc?

Just the regular/older Desire. This would be my first smartphone, my Uni research job might soon be involving some Android development and my £30 Sony Ericsson is playing up a bit. iPhones are out and a few mates have Desires, so...

Defy look like a decent handset, but I would get the desire.
MOTO blur is annoying from my limited use.
Android updates are more frequent and released faster on the desire.

Got the Defy a few weeks back as my first smart phone - love it!!
Works as quick as my mates iphone and I can dip mine in my pint to show off!!
It has so much stuff to play with I am yet to figure it out, so as long as it doesn't break/leak I will be playing!!

MOTOblur seems ok to me, but not got to grips with the swpie thing!

I you are concerned about scratches, geting it wet etc, get a Defy, or a Desire with appropriate case.

Otherwise, Desire all the way - Motoblur not as nice as Sense. Plus HTC get regular OS updates.

I have the Defy. It works. The MotoBlur thing is a non-issue to me, it's just a customisable front screen which is easily bypassed if you don't want to use it, but it's as good a way as any to hold regular used widgets and apps. If you're not a phone geek the main thing you might miss is latest version of Android coming a bit quicker, but if you were a phone geek you wouldn't be asking on here. It fits in my pocket a lot better than the biggest of the smartphones which was a biggie for me, and I don't worry about breaking it as it's pretty robust. Battery life isn't good on either Android or iPhone, so if you want huge battery life (>2 days, realistically charge every night) look elsewhere (Blackberry?) Not found the phone to be slow, only lags have been internet/browser issues.

Thanks all, guess I'm somewhere between beej and mildlifecrashes here. I'm not really a phone geek, but if I'm honest the main thing putting me off the Defy a bit is the knowledge that the OS is slightly out of date, even though I don't really think I'd notice the difference probably!
OTOH I also like the fact that it's a bit smaller and doesn't need as much looking after, even though all other things being equal the Desire is probably the better phone... Maybe I'll just see what's on the best offer at the time.

DesireHD here, workes a treat. Battery poor for the first month or so, but ok now.

I'm due an upgrade imminently and likely choosing between the same two. My wife has the HTC Desire and loves it, battery life on the Desire HD looks a bit better, she's charging every night. I did like the Defy and was leaning towards that, though reading some reviews many people seem to have had issues with the earphone dying. Anyone with the Defy actually had those issues?

The Desire HD is bigger than a standard Desire isn't it? Which would make it too big for me really- the Desire's pushing it!

I had the same quandary, but then found out I couldn't get the Defy on upgrade (shame as I wanted something robust that I could use outdoors). Got the normal Desire and bought a Casemate Tough (£15 from Play) and an Aquapac for when I'm out using Viewranger etc. Can't fault it. Guy at work has Defy, it looks good too. I don't think you can go far wrong with either tbh.

Desire HD here - awesome phone. Everything just works - took me a couple of days to sort the battery life, but.... there's an app for that.

It is big, but I still carry it in any pocket.

Had a defy for a few weeks now and am pretty happy with it. I believe some android updates are due shortly, but it seems to do all i need. Its a bit cheaper feeling than the missus iphone but seems sturdy enough and its dead light. Not tested its water resistant qualities yet!
I wanted something for when switch off my work phone which was cheap but usefull - i got mine from phones 4u 300 mins 300 texts and unlimted data for £15 and £120 cash back.
On the whole very pleased.

There often seems to be comments about motoblur which was not my cup of tea. But you can quite easily delete all the bits off the front screen.

Had my defy one week now. I chose it over the desire because of its IP rating ruggedness.slightly smaller size and that" HELLO MOTO" ringtone !

I had a Defy for 5 days, made one phone call and the earpiece went dead (although loud speaker worked.) Turns out to be quite a common problem (google it.) Not sure whether it was batch or design fault related but I didn't want to risk it so got a refund. In the 5 days I used it I found it to be pretty slick but the Motorblur stuff was ugly and the battery life not that good. Improved things by turning off all the Motorblur stuff (but the phone keeps restarting a lot of stuff) and also turning off background data so that it wasn't constantly trying to converse with aliens.

The Gorilla glass is the same stuff used on the iphone 4 and a colleague managed to scratch his by having it in the same pocket as his keys - so careful! IMHO go for an Orange San Francisco and unlock it and save yourself 200-300 squids.

Hi,

Just changed my phone from my (almost) two year old Desire to a Defy Plus (more or less the same phone as original Defy but with a faster clocked processor and a slightly bigger battery).

I use my phone as bike computer on the bars (have done so for ten years) but getting waterproof cases is a phaff so wanted a waterproof one and Defy Plus fitted the bill.

I bought it from Buymobilephones.net and unfortunately the first two they sent were faulty (touch screen and random rebooting issues) but were replaced without any quibble.

The third one seems fine so far (4 days use). Initial impressions are it is better than the Desire in terms of its slightly smaller size and the screen is a bit sharper and easier to read in sunlight. It is a bit lighter and the ruggedness is ideal for outdoor uses.

For normal use it does everything as well as the Desire did. I can't really see any difference in performance (thought my Desire was running a custom ROM and overclocked and I am still running Stock on the Defy, though rooted) of day to day use. Such is Android's ability to be customised I am able to get pretty similar look and feel to the Sense interface from other apps. The only thing I am missing is a decent email widget to view multiple accounts (Launcher Pro's Gmail widget covers one account though).

Phone call quality is okay, the Desire is maybe slightly clearer but not much. The loudspeaker on the Defy is much better, with Desire I had to use a plug in speaker to watch News 24 streams etc if I was not holding the phone. The Desire camera is a bit better due to its focusing but I don't use the camera that much so it is no big deal.

As the Defy is waterproof I no longer need a waterproof case for the bars. I have simply modded an aluminium case (Pdair one) by drilling a couple of holes in the bottom of it and cable tieing it to the stem. Overall it is a good bit smaller than the waterproof case I was using for the Desire. It is a bit bigger than say a Garmin 800 but not by much. Used it yesterday in 3 degrees cold with a small shower and it survived fine.

Battery life on the bike seems quite good. Using RunGPS with the screen on auto brightness and set to go to lowest brightness level after two minutes I could only get about 3 hours out of the Desire. Based on an hour and half run yesterday the Defy should easily get to 6 hours which is more than enough for me. By setting the screen to turn off completely you could probably get about 8 to 9 hours.

So as long as it holds together it is a good alternative to the Desire with the added bonus of being waterproof.

Regards