Doogee S95

Doogee S95 rugged smartphone Cheap Version of S95 Pro

At the beginning of this year, the manufacturer Doogee attracted attention with its modular S95 pro outdoor smartphone. In addition to a few other manufacturers, Doogee is one of the few companies in the smartphone industry that follows the modular approach and is even the only manufacturer to use the concept in an outdoor smartphone. Fortunately, the device was convincing in our test, so we were all the more pleased when we received the recently introduced successor, the Cheap Version Doogee S95.

Doogee has made improvements in many areas, so that the S95 now uses, among other things, the new Helio P90 processor from Mediatek and faster UFS 2.0 RAM. The camera has also changed significantly. Instead of the two lenses in the S90, the S95 now has three lenses and one of them contains the well-known IMX586 sensor from Sony. The camera has a whopping 48 megapixel resolution and, in combination with the right software, it can produce excellent pictures.

On paper, the S95 is a promising device that has the potential to outshine the competition in the outdoor segment. We have found out for you whether the smartphone also meets these expectations in practice.

The Doogee S95 is unmistakably recognizable as an outdoor smartphone, which is due, among other things, to the rubber corners on display or the decent weight of 285 grams and the dimensions of 168 x 80.5 x 15 millimeters. Nevertheless, it has to be emphasized that the S95 looks quite normal compared to other outdoor smartphones and also has a certain similarity to gaming smartphones like the Xiaomi Blackshark. Maybe this is what Doogee even wanted? After all, the manufacturer emphasizes that the S95 is also suitable for gaming.

On the front of the device is the large 6.3 inch display, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 5. To the sides, the display is surrounded by rather thin borders. The corresponding black area is only slightly thicker on the underside. Nice detail: there are bumps on the corners of the display that prevent the surface from contacting the display when lying flat. The S95 also has a notification LED.

The frame of the S95 consists of partially matted aluminum and rubberized plastic, which has a kind of soft touch surface. Both the standby and volume buttons and the fingerprint sensor are embedded in the frame on the sides. The fingerprint works reliably and quickly. There is also an additional button that can be individually assigned. The two slots for the SIM or micro SD are also housed in the frame. These are located on the underside under a rubber cover, which provides the necessary protection of the smartphone from water. The S95 is namely dust and waterproof according to the IP68 standard and is therefore also suitable for use under tougher conditions. Also a current USB-C connectionis under the cover. On the back of the smartphone, Doogee uses a combination of plastic with a soft-touch surface and matt aluminum. Thanks to the plastic inserted in the middle, it is also possible to charge the S95 via wireless charging with a 10W charge, but more on that later. The surface is also interrupted at the top by the triple camera with dual LED flash and at the bottom by the 16 gold contacts that enable the connection to the modules.

As already mentioned, the Doogee S95 has a 6.3 inch display that is interrupted by a waterdrop notch. With a resolution of 2160 × 1080 pixels, the S95 achieves a pixel density of 383 ppi. No individual pixels can be seen with the naked eye. The display relies on IPS technology, which produces a great picture in the S95. The colors are rich without being over the top and the contrasts as well as the viewing angle stability are convincing. I was also impressed by the black level, especially when compared to other IPS displays, and the maximum brightness of the display. The operation of the touch screen was always quick and reliable. The display of the S95 cannot be missed. The demands on an outdoor smartphone in this price range are met. Even if some “normal” smartphones with a comparable price tag already use an AMOLED display, you have to remember that the S95 is an outdoor smartphone that has other features that the competition lacks. So Doogee has done everything right so far.

In terms of performance, the Doogee S95 has changed a lot compared to its predecessor. One of the biggest innovations is the new Helio P90 Octacore processor from Mediatek. This consists of two ARM Cortex-A75 cores with a clock speed of 2.2 GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 cores with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz. In combination with the IMG PowerVR GM9446 GPU, the S95 achieves an Antutu score of 216,000 points and is therefore on par with powerful smartphones such as the Xiaomi Mi 9T. Accordingly, the smartphone is also ideal for gaming and masters even demanding games such as PUBG Mobile at the highest level of detail. During everyday use with apps like Youtube, Whatsapp etc, you hardly notice the difference to high-end processors like the Snapdragon 855.

Extensive multitasking in the S95 is ensured by a whopping 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, which clock at 11 GB/s and keep countless apps open at the same time thanks to their generous size. The read and write rates of 400 and 210 MB/s of the 128 GB memory, which is based on modern UFS 2.0 technology, are just as convincing. This is also an absolute specialty for an outdoor cell phone! If required, the storage space can also be expanded with a micro SD card by up to 256 GB. However, you do not use a second SIM card.

The triple camera of the Doogee S95 on the back of the smartphone consists of two 8 megapixel sensors and the well-known 48 megapixel sensor called IMX586 from Sony. According to the manufacturer, this setup should enable both wide-angle and close-up shots with a 10x zoom in addition to the normal shots of the Sony sensor. In fact, one of the sensors also serves as a wide-angle sensor, but the alleged telephoto sensor unfortunately turned out to be a fake sensor. This means that all zooming in on the camera app works purely digitally and is accompanied by a reduction in the image resolution. As already mentioned, 48 megapixel recordings can be made with the main sensor, but these are scaled down when using the HDR or AI function. The AI ​​function is used to recognize the scenery before the trigger is pressed and the associated fully automatic adjustment of the settings. In the test, however, I could only observe that colors are sometimes somewhat enhanced.

The Doogee S95 is actually the best outdoor smartphone currently on the market. Overall, the cell phone did not disappoint in any way in our test and even raised the current standard to a new level in some areas. The brute performance of the Helio P90 processor in combination with 8GB RAM and fast UFS 2.0 memory is particularly worth mentioning here. But the camera also surpasses the results of most of the competitors and ensures the best shots in the outdoor team. Finally, the modular design gives the cell phone a real unique selling point. On this point, however, it is to be hoped that the manufacturer will expand the still very limited selection of modules.

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