Doogee Mix Review

Another smartphone from the Chinese market has made its way in the Philippines. It’s not your standard smartphone though as it features a 5.5-inch display with very thin bezels and great screen-to-body ratio. Meet the Doogee Mix. But is that enough to win the Filipino consumers? Find out in our full review.

Design and Construction

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first. Yes, the Doogee Mix looks very familiar, that is because it took heavy inspiration from the Xiaomi Mi Mix. The company didn’t even bother to use a completely different name.

As mentioned, it has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display on the front which is a pretty standard specification, however, it has a great screen-to-body ratio that the company is marketing it as “bezel-less”. The only downside is the low HD display which equates to 267ppi.

Unlike the Mi Mix which uses a special technology as its receiver, the Doogee Mix still sports the standard earpiece just above the display. Down below, housed in the device’s thick chin, is the capacitive Home Button/fingerprint scanner, and at the lower right corner, just like the Mi Mix, is the 5MP selfie camera.

Located on the left side is the hybrid SIM tray with a flimsy plastic flap as it is loose and like it’s going to come off anytime. While on the right are the volume and power/lock buttons.

Up top, we have the 3.5mm audio port and a couple of antenna bands, while down at the bottom is the microUSB port, another pair of antenna bands, and sets of holes for the loudspeaker and microphone.

Flip it on its back and you will see the protruding 16MP and 8MP cameras, the LED flash, and the Doogee logo.

On the hands, the Doogee Mix feels solid and premium thanks to the metal frame and curved glass front and back. It’s also easy to grip but hefty at 193g.

Users might worry about scratching or accidentally dropping the device so it’s good to know that Doogee included a case, a screen protector, and a finger ring holder which amusingly comes in a package that resembles that of a condom. As for color options, it comes in Black and Blue variants.

Display and Multimedia

Given the great screen-to-body ratio, we were expecting the Mix to have a quality display. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The resolution is low for a 5.5-inch screen at 1280 x 720 which is equal to 267ppi. In addition, the AMOLED screen is oversaturated that it looks unnatural. Yellows appear neon or almost orange, blues are too bright, while reds greens have a deeper shade.

It’s not always bad though as the strong colors, plus the very slim bezels, tend to be useful especially when watching videos or playing games. However, not everyone will like an oversaturated, low-resolution screen.

The loudspeaker, on the other hand, is audible and crisp. It doesn’t have much bass and loudness to throw but the overall quality would suffice for hands-free voice calls, gaming, or some casual listening on YouTube or Spotify.

Camera

Imaging is handled by two rear cameras consisting of a 16MP and 8MP shooters, and a 5MP front camera for selfies. The 16MP main shooter can produce images with below to average quality. There are times that it produces photos with natural colors and decent details but there are also plenty of times when it’s out of focus, washed-out, or with dull colors, especially in low-light.

The dual camera setup is for shooting a subject with a blurred background although the output is similar to a radial tilt shift effect you can find on Instagram. There’s a 2x zoom as well but only digital.

As for the front camera, it’s located at the bottom right corner of the device which is an awkward position as you need tilt the device upside down for easy handling. It has face tracking and Beauty effect but the quality is disappointing with inaccurate colors and slow shutter resulting in blurred images.

As for video recording, it can shoot at up to 4K UHD 3840 x 2176 at 25fps in 3GP format. Sharpening is noticeable which makes the footage look grainy. Watch the sample below.

OS, UI, and Apps

Running the software department of the Doogee Mix is the DoogeeOS v2.0.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat. The UI and icons look pretty outdated for a Nougat-powered device but it’s something you can remedy by installing your favorite launcher and icon packs. Tapping on the app drawer brings up the list of installed apps but in alphabetical order with no option to put it in grid mode. You do, however, can toggle a switch that lets go of the app drawer icon and places all your apps in home screens instead.

Speaking of apps, Doogee didn’t include plenty of pre-installed apps, just the basic Google package, and WPS Office, which is good. The 64GB storage leaves you with 49.88GB of usable space as the system takes a hefty 10.86GB. You can further expand it with a microSD card but at the sacrifice of your SIM 2 slot.

As for other features, the Mix has what it calls the Parallel Space, which basically clones whatever app you have like Facebook, Instagram, or chat apps so you can log in using a different account. There’s MagicFinger which shows effects on the screen like random shapes whenever you touch the screen, as well as gesture settings, and a Float gesture which is like the AssistiveTouch on iOS.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Mix is the MediaTek Helio P25 octa-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz, Mali T880 GPU, and 6GB of RAM. Its performance is good as apps installs and launches fast, the fingerprint scanner is very responsive, and we never experienced any crashes or random reboots. Gaming is not an issue as well and can take Marvel Contest of Champions and Mobile Legends in High settings. Warming can be felt at the metal frame by the volume keys and above the camera. Thanks to the large RAM, everything is zippy and multitasking is never an issue.

As for the benchmarks, it performed better in AnTuTu, Geekbench, and AndroBench compared to the HTC U Play that runs on the Helio P10. Check out the results below:

• AnTuTu – 60,353
• Geekbench – 832 (Single-Core), 3,851 (Multi-Core), 2,943 (RenderScript)
• Vellamo – 2,462 (Multicore), 1,396 (Metal), 3,609 (Chrome)
• AndroBench – 251.68 MB/s (Read), 175.24 MB/s (Write)

Connectivity and Call Quality

When it comes to connectivity, the Doogee Mix has the basics covered from LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Dual-SIM is supported but it’s a hybrid setup so you won’t be able to use two SIMs if you have a microSD card installed.

Call quality and mobile data are good and we never had problems locking into a signal as long as coverage in the area is good. The same thing with GPS as navigation with Waze and Google Maps went smoothly.

Battery Life

Providing juice to the Doogee Mix is a 3,380mAh battery which is above average given its caliber. The hardware configuration is not that demanding so we’re getting a full day of mixed usage with a little left for the morning of the next day. Running PC Mark’s battery benchmark had it rated at 10 hours and 1 minute which is good.

Conclusion

The Doogee Mix is the kind of device that you will love and hate. You’ll love the great screen-to-body ratio and design, capable processor, the large RAM and starting storage, fingerprint scanner, above average battery, and Android Nougat. What can disappoint you though is the low-resolution screen, the mediocre cameras, and the ugly UI. What could be its most redeeming quality is the low asking price of Php9,995. For those looking for a smartphone reminiscent of the Xiaomi Mi Mix without breaking the bank, here it is.

You can purchase the Doogee Mix at Lazada. See listing here.

Doogee Mix specs:
5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, 267ppi
2.5GHz MediaTek Helio P25 octa-core CPU
Mali T880 GPU
6GB RAM
64GB storage
microSD card via SIM 2 slot
16MP + 8MP dual rear cameras, LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
Doogee OS 2.0 (Android 7.0 Nougat)
3,380mAh battery
144 x 76.2 x 7.95 mm
193 g

What we liked:
* Great screen-to-body ratio
* Good build quality
* Large RAM and starting storage
* Good performance
* Above average battery life
* Android Nougat out of the box
* Low price

What we dislike:
* Low-resolution and oversaturated screen
* Mediocre cameras
* Ugly UI