Dooge S80 rugged smartphone review

Chinese language cellphone makers are breaking out of their conventional dwelling market and exploring the worldwide market to ship extra gross sales.What they lack is model consciousness within the West, however have a knack of discovering area of interest options that haven’t been exploited by the likes of Apple and Samsung.The Doogee S80 is a major instance of the merchandise the corporate is launching. It’s a totally featured Android eight.zero cellphone that’s constructed to take a number of knocks out within the wilderness and are available again working.Value, availability and valueOn the Doogee web site, it reveals that the unique MSRP of this cellphone was $429.99 (£335), however that you could ‘snap up’ the gadget for $379.99 (£296), and it now comes with some ‘items’.The objects in our evaluate didn’t fairly match these within the promotion, however we did discover a belt clip, prolonged antenna, an OTG cable and a converter that lets you plug a three.5mm headphone jack into the USB Kind-C port to get sound.Amazon.com solely has the S80 on import in America, the place in Europe it may be discovered extra simply. The UK Amazon value was $460.72 (£359), and we did discover it for as little as $374.70 (£292.24) elsewhere.DesignAs telephones go, the S80 is one thing of a monster, and that’s earlier than you join the exterior antenna.Weighing in 398g, and an amalgam of glass bolstered plastic, metallic and glass, if a super-model hurled this cellphone at her assistant, the outcomes could possibly be life-threatening.However then to mount a 5.99-inch display, a 10ok mAh battery and all of the electronics to drive it, the S80 was by no means going to be slim.It measures 172mm lengthy by 82.four mm huge, and a chunky 21.2 mm thick, and has buttons down each flanks together with SIM tray entry.The SIM tray is hidden behind a protecting rubberised insert, to guard from mud and water ingress, and these gaskets additionally cowl the USB Kind C on the backside and the exterior antenna connection on the highest.As with all Chinese language telephones, it appears now; twin Nano SIMs may be mounted, in case you are ready to forego having the additional reminiscence provided by a MicroSD card.With the inconvenience of needing to tug a rubber plug out to cost through USB Kind-C, the designers fortunately included wi-fi charging within the large function set of this gadget.For those who do wish to use Kind-C, maybe to cost extra quickly, you’ll want to make use of the offered cable and charger. With the port so deeply positioned contained in the cellphone, it makes use of an extended model of the Kind-C male connector to make correct contact, and the usual one gained’t attain.For those who like their telephones to have type, there isn’t a lot right here, because the S80 shouts performance and practicality relatively than magnificence and finesse. The construct high quality is sweet, however it isn’t going to win any notoriety for successful essentially the most trendy gadget of the 12 months.That mentioned, it feels good to carry. Sits nicely in hand, and the fingerprint reader on the rear is positioned completely to be situated on the primary try and unlock.However the outdoors is simply a part of the S80 story, so let’s have a look at these essential inside options that make this cellphone a bit particular.HardwareThe value on this gadget could be larger than some anticipate, however Doogee did virtually throw the kitchen sink inside, making this a really highly effective and slick gadget.Its constructed across the MediaTek Helio P23 ARM processor, an eight-core CPU which might run at 2.5GHz (single core) utilizing Cortex-A53 expertise.On this design that’s linked to the ever-capable ARM Mali G71-MP2 GPU working at 700MHz for fluid graphics and easy video playback.That mentioned, this machine is robust as a multi-core gadget, however a lot much less spectacular with a single job. However, extra of that later.As customary, the S80 has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM, and you’ll increase the applying and information storage utilizing a MicroSD card, as much as 128GB in dimension.The show is an LG made IPS panel with a pure decision of 1080 x 2160 pixels that offers an affordable color palette and glorious viewing angles.The makers and so they’re not alone doing this, seek advice from this display as an 18:9 ratio, in a manner that contradicts each maths lesson we took on ratios. Absolutely, that’s a 2:1 ratio, and never 18:9?No matter foolish cause they’ve in doing this, the display is massive and vivid and glorious for these with lower than excellent imaginative and prescient.What Doogee determined to do with this in respect of Android eight.1 was the very clever alternative of not doing something, utilizing the inventory interface virtually solely.The one trace of deviation is that Android eight.1 permits icons to be substituted, and all those which might be cellphone particular have a specific type. It doesn’t match with all the brand new minimalist ones from Google, however it doesn’t look terrible.Our solely concern concerning the OS we’ve is that whereas the evaluate mannequin was at model eight.1, it’s safety replace was final up to date in August, and we’ve had at the least three extra since.Even massive manufacturers, like Lenovo, appear to deal with safety updates like they’re solely non-compulsory even after remarkably brief intervals of product life.And, we will solely hope Doogee isn’t pondering of doing the identical with the S80.CameraThere are at least three cameras on the S80, a front-facing 16MP one designed by Samsung for selfies, and two on the rear by Sony. This rear digicam is a mixture design that makes use of the 12.2 MP Sony IMX363 and one other 5 MP sensor.The IMX363 is a really good digicam sensor and has had earlier outings within the Asus ZenFone 5/5Z, quite a few Xiaomi Mi telephones and the Vivo NEX, to say only a few.The S80 makes use of the IMX363 with an f1.eight lens, a speedy Twin Pixel autofocus system and through the use of the mix of two sensor inputs, its low mild functionality is spectacular.Is that this a ok digicam to be your solely supply of captured pictures on journey?Effectively, the is sweet sufficient, however Doogee didn’t give it a digicam app that does any greater than essentially the most fundamental performance.There isn’t any HDR, no face monitoring and no panoramas. It has a macro mode and wonder mode that makes use of smooth focus, and you’ll flip the flash off, however sadly that’s the complete repertoire for nonetheless pictures.We downloaded the Open Digital camera app, enhancing the expertise massively. As disgrace that Doogee didn’t contemplate together with it, or one thing higher.The video mode is equally sparse, however beneath Android eight.1 you do get the power to make use of ‘Duo’, the high-quality video cellphone mode.The photographs we took are superb, nicely saturated and sharp, however we will’t assist feeling that the wonderful rear sensor is let down by the dearth of software program developer improvement time.AccessoriesWhen we assess a cellphone, we’ve a protracted listing of potential sensors cellphone can have that we both tick or cross accordingly. The S80 has a tick in practically each single sensor field.It has NFC, GPS, a G-sensor, a proximity sensor, Barometer and Coulometer. Oddly, the one factor lacking a gyroscope, and the power to detect blood sugar ranges.Whereas most telephones have most of those too, the inclusion of barometric sensing, amongst different helpful additions, might make this gadget helpful for anybody gathering information on a journey.The opposite factor of notoriety is the walkie-talkie performance, one thing we’ve not seen in a cellphone for a really very long time.Within the S80, it makes use of DMR (Digital Cellular Radio) expertise, a alternative for the analogue applied sciences of the previous. It makes use of frequencies within the 400-480 MHz vary and may obtain a 10 km vary in open vary circumstances.We’ll be trustworthy and say that we by no means examined this facet. As a result of we don’t have one other DMR gadget, which underlines the potential catch in utilizing it. As a result of until your entire group has S80 telephones or DMR walkie-talkies, then it’s of restricted worth.For those who do, then you definately solely want the S80 to speak, even outdoors cell phone protection space, in case you are inside vary.And, the ultimate occasion piece of this cellphone is its proof against the setting, with the S80 having IP68, IP69Ok and MIL-STD-810G certifications.What these codes signify is the power to endure being dropped from six ft on to a tough floor, temperatures from -30C to +60C, mud and water immersion.Any cellphone with IP68 ought to be capable of stand up to complete immersion to a depth of 1.5m for at the least 30 minutes, and the IP69Ok infers it might deal with high-pressure steam, as when one thing is steam cleaned.For these curious, the MIL-STD-810G label isn’t a real certification. What it signifies is that the makers subjected the gadget to some, not all, of the assessments outlined in army MIL-STD-810G spec doc. One check, for instance, is a drop from 8ft on to tough concrete with not more than superficial harm to the cellphone. As we’re positive Doogee would love the evaluate S80 again in pristine situation, so we declined to abuse it in any manner that might reveal how these claims could be an exaggeration or not.However, primarily based merely on dealing with the S80, it definitely appears to be like prefer it might survive vital ranges of abuse.Efficiency and benchmarksWith the very excessive specification of the SoC on this cellphone, we anticipated one thing spectacular within the numbers, and it wasn’t all great.In our testing, we deployed each GeekBench four and AnTuTu Bench to check CPU, GPU, reminiscence and battery efficiency.Essentially the most telling numbers are the GeekBench CPU and Compute scores, because the S80 managed simply 904 with single core, 4207 utilizing multi-core, and 3292 on Compute.These outcomes put it on a degree with the HTC 10 Evo, Xiaomi Mi Word or the Samsung Galaxy J.There are a lot quicker telephones round, however for many makes use of the S80 is fast sufficient.The place it does higher, and it ought to with 10080 mAh beneath the hood, is within the battery check.It scored 11359, and that’s an enormous quantity in contrast with a typical cellphone and even some tablets. The Xiaomi Mi Max 2, for instance, has a 5300 mAh battery and manages simply over 6000 as compared.Doogee quotes a standby interval of 1308 hours or 54.5 days. And, whereas real-world circumstances virtually definitely wouldn’t allow the cellphone to function for that lengthy or the 136 hours of name time the maker estimates, it’s definitely a power of the S80.Aside from the battery, this cellphone is sort of similar to the Doogee S70 that got here earlier than it. Similar processor, reminiscence, storage, display and OS.What Doogee did was virtually double the battery dimension, added the walkie-talkie tech and elevated the worth considerably.That technique appears flawed, given that you could purchase USB energy packs that may last more for lower than the distinction, and the walkie-talkie tech has solely situational worth.Ultimate verdictIf you plan to wander away the overwhelmed path, then the Doogee  S80 might be a extra appropriate firm than an Apple iPhone or something made for extra common use.It’s sturdy, has a simple to learn show, virtually all of the sensors you may anticipate on a cellphone, nice battery life, and it doubles as a walky-talky should you get out of service vary.On the unfavourable facet of this equation, you can simply add half a kilogram to your backpack with cables and equipment, and the cellphone isn’t distinctive at a lot.However, if you’d like one thing that ought to be capable of deal with being dropped and even immersed, the S80 has among the qualities that adventurers would possibly like.