Doogee BL5000 First Impressions

Back in July, Doogee announced that it will be introducing a new smartphone for the Philippine market, sporting a glossy curved front and back, 13MP + 8MP rear cameras, and a large 5,050mAh battery – the Doogee BL5000. Check out our initial thoughts about the device below.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the Doogee BL5000 is also one of its major features – the design. While most smartphones of this caliber would go for a more traditional design, the BL5000 is quite different. Doogee calls it the 8 curves design.

The front is mounted with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 with sides that curve at the edges, or what we commonly call 2.5D. However, the curvature of this device is more pronounced that the top part reminds us of the LG G5.

The same design can be found at the rear although we doubt its made of Gorilla Glass due to its susceptibility to scratches. What we like though is the glossy metallic paint job that reminds us of HTC U family’s Liquid Surface. The frame, on the other hand, is plastic with a matte finish.

Going back to the front, we have a 5.5-inch screen with Full HD resolution. above it is the earpiece, 8MP camera, LED flash, and sensors. Down below is the thick bezel housing The fixed Home Button that also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

To the left is the hybrid SIM tray, while on the right are the Power/Lock button and the volume rocker.

Above it is the 3.5mm headset jack, while down below are the microUSB port, loudspeaker, and main microphone.

Flip it on its back, are the dual 13MP PDAF cameras and LED flash.

At 10.3mm, the BL5000 is thick. It’s hefty too at 210g, but that is understandable considering the 5,050mAh battery. Not impressive though as we have seen devices with large batteries like the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom and ZenFone 4 Max keep it relatively thin at under 9mm, but not a serious downer.

Doogee BL5000 specs:
5.5-inch Full HD display
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750T octa-core CPU
Mali-T860 GPU
4GB RAM
64GB storage
MicroSD card support (SIM 2)
Dual 13MP PDAF rear camera w/ LED flash
8MP front camera w/ LED flash
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE, FDD: B1/3/7/8/20
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS
USB OTG
Android 7.0 Nougat
5,050mAh battery w/ fast charging
155.2 x 75.85 x 10.3mm
210g
Black, Blue, Gold

The pricing and availability of the Doogee BL5000 are yet to be announced. Stay tuned for our full review in the coming week.