The Defy is one of my favorite Android phones from Motorola for a few reasons: it's compact, has a nearly bezel-free screen, and will easily withstand moderate abuse (including the occasional dunk into water). Sure, I'm not a big fan of Blur -- but if you can get past that, it's a top-notch budget choice for T-Mobile. Well, we've just caught reliable word of a Defy+ model, but there's a catch: it's being shopped around with 850 / 1900 / 2100 HSPA, which would make it appropriate for AT&T (and Canadian carriers) rather than T-Mobile.

Specs are pretty similar to the Defy (and AT&T's Bravo) across the board, though the Defy+ is set to ship with Android 2.3.3 and replaces the 800MHz TI OMAP 3610 chip with a 1GHz OMAP 3620, featuring PowerVR plus a couple hundred bonus megahertz. Storage, RAM, camera, and display specs all look essentially the same.

Clearly, this would be a really mild upgrade to the Defy and Bravo should AT&T (or any carrier) decide to offer it. Then again, the Bravo isn't ruggedized like the Defy -- and considering the "Defy+" name, I'd expect this new model to offer most or all of the Defy's water, dust, and shock resistance. So if you're accident prone and you've got an AT&T account that's ready for an upgrade... well, this might be right up your alley.