14 DAY TRIAL // With only a few days left until CES 2012 kicks off in Las Vegas, Motorola announced the upcoming availability of two affordable Android smartphones, the MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI.
Both smartphones will be launched in China, Europe and Latin America beginning this spring. In fact, Motorola MOTOLUXE is already available in China under the name Motorola XT615. However, the MOTOLUXE is expected to go live in Europe and Latin America starting in February.
On the other hand Motorola DEFY MINI will be launched in China under the name Motorola XT320, whereas in select countries in Europe and Latin America will be available under its original name starting in February.
No word on the handsets’ prices yet, but Motorola confirmed that both would be showcased next week during the International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.
Motorola is trying to offer Android fans who cannot afford to purchase one of the popular high-end smartphones available in the market, the same level of functionality delivered by Google’s mobile platform wrapped up in a stylish body.
The smartphones are powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform, but they feature slightly different displays. While the MOTOLUXE sports a huge 4.0-inch capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 854 pixels resolution, the DEFY MINI features a considerably smaller 3.2-inch touchscreen that supports 320 x 480 pixels resolution.
On the inside, the MOTOLUXE is equipped with an 800 MHz CPU, an Adreno 200 graphics processing unit, 1GB of ROM, 512 MB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
Motorola DEFY MINI follows the same rugged design as its DEFY and DEFY+ predecessors. It is dustproof and water-resistant, and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass.
The DEFY MINI is powered by a low-performance 600 MHz processor and packs 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
Each smartphone comes with secondary VGA camera for video calls. The MOTOLUXE sports an enhanced 8-megapixel rear camera, whereas the DEFY MINI comes with a mediocre 3-megapixel photo snapper.
It is also worth mentioning that the Motorola MOTOLUXE comes with a lanyard slot that has a lighting effect. This accessory allows users to see when they’ve missed a call, received a text or have new email.
