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Introduction
Doogee has been known for its rugged phones, and those seem to be excellent yet budget alternatives to more premium devices such as CAT's. Doogee (pronounced du:dʒi: if you wondered) sells well-specced, nearly indestructible phones at a bargain price, and if you happen to drop yours in, say, a lava pit, well, you wouldn't care that much, and you'd just buy another one.
And here is one of these weirdly interesting specimens - the Doogee S88 Pro. It's been sitting in our backlog for a while, but we are glad we finally got to review it.
Just like many other rugged phones, this S88 Pro has a Transformer-like look with a ruggedly handsome body made of metal and rubber for IP69K water and drop resistance, among others. It has a decent 1080p screen, adequate hardware for the job, a modern camera setup, but what's probably the key selling feature is the enormous 10,000mAh battery. Wow!
So, the Doogee S88 Pro offers a 6.3" 1080p IPS LCD screen, it runs on Helio P70 chip, and packs a triple camera on the back with a 21MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide shooter, and an 8MP depth sensor (that has to be a first). There are additional custom and emergency keys, you also get a fingerprint scanner mounted on the frame, while on the back, two eye-shaped LEDs complement the front notification light.
Doogee S88 Pro at a glance:
- Body: 171.6x85.5x18.7mm, 372g; Front Gorilla Glass, plastic/metal back with reinforced soft corners, aluminum frame; IP68/IP69K dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins), Drop-to-concrete resistance from up to 2.0 m, MIL-STD-810G compliant.
- Display: 6.30" IPS LCD, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 410ppi.
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6771T Helio P70 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.1 GHz Cortex-A73 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A53); Mali-G72 MP3 GPU.
- Memory: 128GB, 6GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 21 MP, f/2.2, 1/2.4", 1.12µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 130˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Depth: 8 MP, f/2.2.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.2.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 720p@30fps.
- Battery: 10,000mAh; Fast charging 24W. Wireless charging 10W. Reverse wireless charging 5W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); FM radio, NFC, Iron Man-like notification LED eyes on the back.
Unboxing the Doogee S88 Pro
The Doogee S88 Pro comes packed within a large paper box, but it's a large phone, isn't it? Anyway, inside you'll find a 24W charger, a USB-C cable, a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter, and one small sling.
The S88 Pro also ships with a thin screen protector, which you can easily apply by yourself. Well, it is supposed to be easy though we screwed up a bit with ours.
We expected a tempered glass - like the one Ulefone ships with its Armor phones - but Doogee's is just a rather thin plastic film though the maker is claiming it is explosion-proof. Right...
Design, build, handling
If you've seen a couple of rugged phones, then you've seen them all. The Doogee S88 Pro does look a lot like other Doogees, Ulefones, CATs - it has a flat metal frame with reinforced corners, a thick plastic back, and you can see a lot of tiny screws everywhere.
Doogee tried to make the S88 Pro stand out among its indestructible peers by putting Iron Man eyes-shaped LEDs on the back. And they do win aesthetics points when they glow for incoming calls or missed notifications. Doogee is also selling an additional Iron Man helmet-inspired case, if you'd like to go all-in with the famous Avenger's look.
The Doogee S88 Pro has a 6.3" IPS LCD screen that's covered by a piece of Gorilla Glass, unknown revision. It's surrounded by a thin yet solid plastic rim that will reduce scratches and even absorb the shock when the phone lays or falls down on its face.
There is a waterdrop-shaped notch for the 16MP selfie camera though obviously, it wasn't necessary, and it doesn't really make sense. You can clearly see the bezels are thick enough to fit a dozen of cameras and then some.
Something we didn't expect is to see a front notification LED light right next to the earpiece. Doogee didn't have to put such a thing as there are two large LEDs at the back, yet it did go the extra mile, and we did appreciate this. No matter which way your S88 Pro is facing, you will always know if you have some missed notifications.
The frame is made of metal (long sides) and plastic (short sides). The metal pieces extend towards the back for additional sturdiness. The top and bottom parts of the phone are covered in this soft rubber-like plastic, which is responsible for the shock-proof capabilities of the S88 Pro.
We are not sure if the screws around the frame and the back serve any real purpose, but they do fit the rugged design.
The left side of the Doogee S88 Pro has the hybrid-SIM tray and two custom keys - the top one is entirely custom, while the bottom one is for emergency purposes. Still, you can assign and reassign actions to those buttons as you see fit.
The right side is housing the volume rocker and the power key. Below those, exactly where your thumb should be resting, is the always-on, blazing-fast, and very accurate fingerprint scanner.
Luckily, this sensor is configured to react only upon successful recognition, so it will not vibrate, turn the screen on, or lock you out of your phone if you touch it several times with your palm or unregistered fingers. We didn't like this on the Ulefone Armor 9, and we are glad to see Doogee has done it better.
The bottom has the lone USB-C port that is protected by a rubber lid. Even if this lid is absent, the port itself is sealed with glue, so no water or dust can get past it. At first, we did like the cover, but we feel it will eventually rupture.
The back is made of thick plastic, unless we count the extended frame around the longer sides. The triple-camera and the dual-LED flash sit on a huge metal piece. Another metal strip can be seen around the bottom, showing off Doogee's logo.
The speaker grille is next to the Doogee branding, on the left, while the right grille is fake and is there for the sake of symmetry only.
The Doogee S88 Pro seems to be a properly built and well-sealed phone. Doogee has taken good care of its weaker spots - the USB port and the SIM slot, by using both internal and external sealing.
The phone is IP69K and MIL-STD-810G compliant and is probably one, if not the toughest phones we've met. It is water-resistant and can survive in 1m deep water for a day or 1.5m for at least 2 hours. The phone is fully dust-sealed, so no worries about that either.
The Doogee S88 Pro is also shock-proof and can easily survive drops from up to 2m on flat concrete or up to 1.5 on rough surfaces. We did drop it a couple, oh, well, a dozen times on various pavements, parquets, floor tiles, and we got worried for a bit about the floor tile it hit. Don't forget this phone weighs almost half a kilogram, so dropping it on fragile surfaces will probably end badly for the contact surface.
The device is also MIL-STD-810G compliant. it can survive extreme cold (-55°C for 4 hours), can be left out in the sun (50°C for 20 hours), and it will laugh in the face of high humidity or even acidic atmosphere (35°C, 2 hours).
All this comes at a price. The Doogee S88 Pro is no compact or pocket-friendly phone. It is bulky and heavy and may not be the best fit for your everyday jeans. It's not as terrible as it sounds, though, with neatly 2cm thickness and 372 weight - it's not unreasonably big and will be fine for most workman's clothes. And it will go where only a handful of phones can go, get the job done and survive unscathed.
Display
The Doogee S88 Pro features a 6.3" IPS LCD screen of extended 1080p resolution making for 410ppi density. It is protected by a flat Gorilla Glass, though the maker hasn't specified the model number.
The panel has a waterdrop-shaped notch, and the selfie camera is in there, though it didn't have to be this way - there is more than enough room on the bezels for it. Another peculiarity we found is that the black paint forming the bezels on the glass extends a bit more than it should around the notch, and it looks really awkward when you notice there are more pixels underneath. The whole eyesore thing is one big misunderstanding, but it is what it is.
Doogee is promising 1500:1 screen contrast, and the phone did deliver on this promise. We measured a maximum brightness of 530 nits, and when we combine this with the nicely deep blacks, we get 1640:1 contrast ratio.
There is no sunlight boost when using Auto Brightness.
The minimum brightness we captured was 19.6 nits on white color, quite unimpressive.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.323 | 530 | 1641:1 | |
| 0.279 | 406 | 1455:1 | |
| 0.357 | 550 | 1541:1 | |
| 0.292 | 398 | 1363:1 | |
| 0.349 | 472 | 1352:1 | |
| 0.303 | 421 | 1389:1 | |
| 0.42 | 575 | 1369:1 | |
| 0 | 459 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 585 | ∞ | |
| 0.31 | 457 | 1474:1 | |
| 0.374 | 526 | 1406:1 | |
The screen is pre-calibrated in the factory, and there are no settings you can tweak. There is a massive blue tinge, and you cannot get rid of it.
Battery life
Well, hello there! We guess a bunch of you jumped right here as the battery life has to be the most intriguing part of this review. The Doogee S88 Pro is powered by a 10,000 mAh battery - the first phone we meet with such a behemothian cell. And we were quite eager, too, so without further ado, here come the numbers!
The 202 hours endurance rating is easily the best one we've captured to this very day and tops all other smartphones we've tested so far. It was achieved via a mix of unbelievable screen-on times, more than 60 hours of 3G talks, and more than 22 days of standby!
This large battery is also very hard to deplete if you want to do it faster than usual. It took us more than 6 hours on 3DMark WildLife Unlimited Stress Test to drain just 42% of it, meaning it will take about 15 hours to kill a full battery even if you did your absolute best. For comparison - it takes only 2 hours on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
When playing a game, the battery drops at half the rate, meaning you can play your favorite title for more than a day and then have some juice left for a couple of hours with your favorite TV show.
Charging speed
The Doogee S88 Pro supports 24W fast charging and comes with a proper 12V/2A power adapter. While this is fast enough for most phones, it can't but feel inadequate for a 10,000 mAh battery. We suspected charging this thing will be sluggish, and we were right.
After we finally depleted the Doogee S88 Pro battery, the supplied charger refilled merely 16% of it in 30 minutes.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Realme 7 Pro
94% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
63% - Realme 7
58% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
37% - Ulefone Armor 9
35% - Ulefone Armor 7
27% - Doogee S88 Pro
16%
A 90-minute charge will take you to 47%. And a complete top-up requires 3 hours and 49 minutes.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Realme 7 Pro
0:37h - Realme 7
1:05h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
1:11h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
1:45h - Ulefone Armor 9
2:30h - Ulefone Armor 7
2:40h - Doogee S88 Pro
3:49h
The Doogee S88 Pro supports up to 10W wireless charging, but we tried recharging it on our Realme wireless charger overnight and found that one night is not enough for a full charge.
You can't use the phone as a power bank via a cable but you can make use of reverse wireless charging.
Speaker
The Doogee S88 Pro has a single rear-facing speaker. It scored a Below Average mark (-31.6 LUFS) in our loudness test, and the same applies to its audio quality. The speaker is tuned mostly for mid-tones and is lacking in bass and especially in high notes. The S88 Pro sounds a lot like those old wired radios, if you are old enough to remember them.
Android 10 with Doogee topping
The Doogee S88 Pro comes with Android 10 out of the box. The company says it is a pure version of Android, but it's not really. Still, the Doogee launcher is mostly clutter-free, so it does remind us of the vanilla Android.
The home screen, lock screen, notification shade, and the recent apps menu look like those from the stock Android, minus the icons.
Android OS on Doogee S88 Pro
Looking deeper into the Settings menu reveals the changes that Doogee has made - there are Emergency Rescue entries, Custom Key configuration, DuraSpeed acceleration, and various gestures, among others.
You can assign two different actions on the Custom key - one upon the short press, another one - on long press. Emergency Rescue allows you to set up quick actions and emergency contacts for when you need help.
The Breathing Light Switch (a.k.a. The Iron Man eyes) settings are also here. The LEDs are RGB, but most of the time, you will see them flashing blue (for incoming calls or missed notifications). Red comes for a low or charging battery, and green - for when the battery is fully charged.
Various settings
There is no app drawer available on the S88 Pro, but if it's a must - there are plenty of custom launchers.
The app package is pretty straight-forward. The default Android apps are pre-installed, so you have a Photos app, the YouTube players, and a file manager. There is also an FM radio app by Doogee, a custom Basic Service app, and a Toolbox app.
The Basic Service app is what's usually called a Phone manager on other phones - it cleans your memory and offers advanced power, app, and traffic managers.
The Toolbox contains a compass and sound meter (uses the mic), protractor, AR level for paintings, Height meter, Bubble level, and Plumb bob.
Basic Service • Basic Service • Toolbox
It's a good thing that there are no ads across the UI whatsoever, so you won't be bothered by unwanted spam here and there. And that pretty much covers the Doogee S88 Pro software package.
Performance and benchmarks
The Doogee S88 Pro is powered by the Helio P70 chipset. It has an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A73 cores at 2.1GHz, and 4x Cortex-A53 cores which are running at 2.0GHz.
The GPU is a tri-core Mali-G72 MP3.
The Doogee S88 Pro is available in a single memory configuration - 6GB RAM with 128GB storage.
We ran some benchmarks, and they are far from impressive. The Doogee is a weaker performer than the Ulefone Armor 9 (and its Helio P90 chip), though the performance gap isn't that big.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Realme 7
292828 - Redmi Note 9S
254000 - Redmi Note 9
200414 - Ulefone Armor 9
197000 - Realme 7i
172933 - Doogee S88 Pro
168125 - Samsung Galaxy A12
107189
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
1785 - Realme 7
1681 - Ulefone Armor 9
1498 - Doogee S88 Pro
1447 - Realme 7i
1318 - Redmi Note 9
1292 - Samsung Galaxy A12
1034
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
570 - Realme 7
536 - Ulefone Armor 9
401 - Redmi Note 9
361 - Realme 7i
312 - Doogee S88 Pro
311 - Samsung Galaxy A12
169
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
34 - Redmi Note 9S
30 - Ulefone Armor 9
19 - Doogee S88 Pro
14 - Realme 7i
13 - Samsung Galaxy A12
7.7
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
28 - Redmi Note 9S
26 - Realme 7i
25 - Ulefone Armor 9
17 - Samsung Galaxy A12
13 - Doogee S88 Pro
12
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
20 - Redmi Note 9S
18 - Doogee S88 Pro
8.6 - Ulefone Armor 9
7.4 - Realme 7i
7 - Samsung Galaxy A12
3.3
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
17 - Redmi Note 9S
15 - Realme 7i
13 - Doogee S88 Pro
7.9 - Ulefone Armor 9
7.9 - Samsung Galaxy A12
5
The phone runs smoothly and won't overheat ever. We ran the 3DMark stress test, and the Doogee S88 Pro scored 98% stability.
This surely isn't the fastest phone even for its class, and you may feel it's a bit sluggish at times - there is no lag or stutters, just slowness. But nobody will be eyeing it for its performance anyway.
A triple-camera on the back
The Doogee S88 Pro packs a triple camera on its back. It has a 21MP primary snapper, an 8MP ultrawide shooter, and an 8MP depth sensor. A dual-LED flash is also around, but it will be used much more as a flashlight and far less as a camera flash.
The primary camera uses a dated Sony IMX230 21MP 1/2.4" sensor with 1.12µm pixels, and it sits behind a f/2.2 lens. Phase-detection autofocus is available for this camera.
The second snapper is an 8MP f/2.2 one for ultrawide photos. The focus is fixed at infinity for this one.
The third camera uses another 8MP sensor behind an f/2.2 lens, and this one should be the depth sensor. We suspect this one is fake, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Over at the front, you'll find a 16MP camera for selfies behind f/2.0 lens. The focus is fixed.
The camera app is quite awkward - you swipe to switch between modes - Monochrome, Video, Picture, WideAngle, Beauty, Bokeh, Pro, Night.
When using the default Picture mode, you will see a 1x and 2x switch on the viewfinder, but that's digital zoom only. If you need the ultrawide camera, then you swipe to go to WideAngle mode.
Camera app
The Pro mode is not that pro - it offers white balance, ISO (up to 1600), and exposure compensation but not shutter speed.
The Night Mode does nothing - it shoots identical photos as the regular one, there is no timer, multiple frames stacking, or any fancy processing. But that's to be expected from a camera that can't even support HDR, right?
Oh, and the Bokeh mode doesn't seem to use the depth sensor (if that's connected to the board at all). In fact, it's so bad, we can't wait to show it to you.
Photo quality
The Doogee S88 Pro cameras are hands down the worst shooters we have seen in ages.
The main camera shoots high-res photos that are quite large. The quality is poor - the detail is low, the noise is too high, the colors are washed out and desaturated. The contrast and dynamic range are mediocre at best.
Worse, if you are shooting more complex objects, the camera processing may find them too complex and give up on them entirely.
Main camera, 21MP
The 8MP ultrawide photos are incredibly awful. They are so bad that some of us found them hilarious, actually. Everything outside the center spot is blurred, the corners are warped, and the colors are really terrible. It's a potato camera.
Ultrawide camera, 8MP
The Doogee S88 Pro maybe featuring the highest-resolution depth sensor we've seen in a while, but it's either fake or isn't utilized at all. The blur is entirely simulated and not by AI, but you. Yes, you select the size of the blur borders manually. And even then - the photos are horrendous.
Portraits
Should we even talk about the low-light photos? Well, the ones from the main camera are barely usable and completely desaturated.
Main camera, 21MP
The low-light ultrawide photos are oversaturated (really?!) and entirely overrun by noise.
Ultrawide camera, 8MP
The 16MP selfies are okay for social networks, maybe. They are poor in detail, and the colors are washed out, but maybe if downsized to 4MP or so, you can do something with them.
Selfies, 16MP
Video recording
The Doogee S88 Pro supports 1080p@30fps video recording with its primary camera and 720p@30fps capturing with the selfie shooter.
The 1080p@30fps clips from the main camera are captured with 17Mbps video bitrate and feature mono audio (128Kbps). The frame-rate is steady at 25fps and can't reach the promised 30fps. And then comes the quality, which is, well, average. The resolved detail is okay, but the colors and contrast are as bad as the still from the main camera.
There is no video stabilization, in case you were wondering.
Alternatives
Doogee is selling cheap rugged phones, so CAT offers are out of the question here. But Ulefone is surely the one Doogee has to fear the most.
The Armor X8 and Armor 8 are a bit cheaper than the €200 Doogee S88 Pro. Both are equally indestructible but offer inferior screens, chipsets, and batteries. On the other hand, the €290 Ulefone Armor 9E is quite the match for the S88 Pro - it has a similar screen and hardware, the same ruggedness, and an impressive battery, too. The 9E offers a much better camera kit, and you can attach Ulefone's endoscope to it, so maybe the extra €90 is worth it.
Ulefone Armor 8 • Ulefone Armor X8 • Ulefone Armor 9E
The verdict
The Doogee S88 Pro is one affordable rugged phone, which impressed us with its solid build and various resistances. It also packs one of the largest batteries we've seen within a smartphone, and it easily topped our all-time battery chart. These two alone are enough to sell it well.
Doogee isn't well known in many markets, and you better not expect firmware updates or good after-market service. And as we established in this review - the camera is rather unreliable.
But other than that - the S88 Pro is one really impressive phone - it can endure a lot and last you, say, a week on a single charge. And even if it doesn't survive some of the dangers you are about to put it through, you can simply buy another one because it's that cheap. That doesn't sound like a terrible deal, does it?
Pros
- It's rugged and it's cheap.
- The screen is and the chipset is adequate.
- Battery life is phenomenal.
- Android 10 is clutter-free.
Cons
- Doogee is a small, less known brand so prospects for support or updates are unclear.
- Camera performance is poor across the board.
- Speaker loudness and sound quality are lackluster.
- Reverse charging is only wireless, you can't use a cable
- The screen notch is unnecessary.
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