See in the dark with the Doogee S96 Pro
Doogee S96 Pro.
Doogee is one of several Chinese companies consistently releasing rugged phones and their latest is the S96 Pro, which adds the ability to shoot photos in complete darkness.
The S96 Pro is rugged with flattened rubber corners and a mixture of rubber and plastic materials on the back and sides. On the left edge is the dual SIM tray, which also has a place for a microSD card. Below this is a dedicated shortcut button (easy key) which can be configured for example to launch the camera, take a screenshot, or open an app. On the right is the volume up and down, power button and fingerprint sensor.
The rear of the phone has a unique quad-camera setup placed top and centre in a circular shape. The silver circle houses the four cameras with four IR lights on the left and four LED flashes on the right.
The bottom edge has a flap, which protects the USB-C and 3.5mm ports. Doogee even includes a set of 3.5mm headphones in the box.
The front features a 6.22-inch screen with a teardrop cutout for the front-facing camera. The rounded corners of the display are large and feel like a waste of space to me. What’s good is the raised lip on the top and bottom which protects the screen when you lay it flat.
The 6.22-inch screen is HD+ with a 1520 x 720px resolution. Although some will not be happy it’s not a full HD display, the iPhone XR has a similar pixel count and you don’t hear too many users complaining about that screen. You can change the colour options from standard to vivid or a custom colour temperature. The refresh rate is only 60Hz, but scrolling through social feeds is smooth and colours pop in both photos and video on the vivid setting.
The S96 Pro is designed to be able to take knocks thanks to its solid structure. It has a high-density macro-molecule coating, with IP68 and IP69K waterproof and dustproof ratings. The MediaTek Helio G90 Octa-Core processor chipset (2x Cortex A76 2.0GHz + 6x Cortex A55 2.0GHz) provides excellent performance that not only shows in the benchmarks I ran, but also in real-world use. Everything from swiping through the UI to opening apps feels zippy. Gaming also felt surprisingly smooth and fast for such a budget phone with no obvious slowdowns during the games I tested.
Onboard storage is 128GB with the option of upgrading this with a microSD card up to an extra 256GB. You also get a generous 8GB of RAM, which makes switching between multiple apps a breeze.
The massive 6350mAh battery combined with the mid-range processor makes the S96 Pro last for at least two days and often more. On the downside, it also adds to the size (167x81x155mm) and weight of the phone, which is substantial at 307g. Not an ideal phone if you want to take it with you for a jog.
Other hardware features include wifi (2.4G/5G), Bluetooth 5.0, 10W wireless charging, a 24W fast charger (included) and an FM radio, which requires 3.5mm headphones to work. You also get NFC which means you can use Google Pay for contactless payments.
The four cameras on the rear feature a 48MP f/1.8 main sensor, 20MP f/2.8 (night vision), 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide and a 2MP f/2.8 macro. On the front is a 16MP f/2.0 selfie shooter with an 80-degree field of view.
The main camera can shoot 12MP photos (3MB) with pixel binning or the full 48MP (10MB) at its native resolution. It offers excellent image quality in both photos and video. It can capture sharp images with good colour reproduction. On the downside, Night mode is really bad and not any better than using the standard photo mode.
Unfortunately, the wide-angle lens isn’t as good as the main producing soft images. The 2MP macro lens isn’t much use either. I found the main lens cropped to the same field of view as the macro produced much better sharpness, detail and colour reproduction.
The 20MP night vision camera works in the same way a night vision security camera works by flooding the area in front of it with IR light. It captures photos in black and white and although the quality isn’t fantastic, it can take photos in complete darkness. I’m not sure how often I’d use this in the real world but I’m sure there are those who will love this feature.
The S96 Pro runs an almost stock version of Android 10 but doesn’t have an app drawer like iOS. Unfortunately, if you have a lot of apps and don’t have them organised into folders, finding a particular app isn’t easy. You can, of course, install a third-party launcher like Nova.
The Doogee S96 Pro is an excellent phone with a speedy CPU, up to a three-day battery, a big display and large onboard storage. The main camera is excellent and the addition of extras like the night vision camera and rugged hardware make it an attractive option for those who want a durable phone without sacrificing performance.
