Philippines is a crowded smartphone market. From international names like ASUS, Huawei, Moto, Vivo, OPPO to local names such as Cherry and MyPhone, will Doogee capture the hearts of the Filipino consumers with the near bezelless Mix? Well, let’s find out.
Before we get into the review, we have published an article for the unboxing of the Doogee Mix. Check out that article first if you want to see what’s in the package. Now, let’s get on with it.
Doogee Mix
| Display | 5.5-inch HD SuperAMOLED 720p, 2.5 curved glass, 267ppi |
| CPU | 2.5GHz 64-bit Helio P25 octa-core |
| GPU | Mali-T880 |
| RAM | 4GB / 6GB |
| Storage | 64GB, expandable via microSD slot |
| Rear Camera | 16MP + 8MP, PDAF, LED Flash |
| Front Camera | 5MP, 86° Wide Angle |
| Battery | 3,380mAh |
| OS | Android 7.0 Nougat |
| Others | WiFi, LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Dual-SIM, Fingerprint Scanner |
Design and Features
Let’s not beat around the bush. The Doogee Mix looks like a certain Chinese smartphone due to its near bezelless design. The 5.5-inch SuperAMOLED might be nice to look at, but its 1280 x 720 resolution ruins the experience a bit. This brings the screen 5.5-inch screen to 267ppi, which is a bit low compared to some of the other phones near its price range such as the Huawei GR3 2017.
The Mix’s display is also a bit disappointing under direct sunlight. You may want to find some shade before using it under bright conditions.
Under the screen of the Mix are the fingerprint scanner and the 5MP 86° wide angle camera. Using the selfie camera is a bit clunky at first. You can technically take a photo with the camera at the bottom, however, the smartphone does remind you to rotate it first for an optimal angle for a selfie but it’s a sacrifice worth living with due to its lovely near bezelless screen. It’s worth noting that Doogee has pre-applied a screen protector on the screen with an extra one in the box.
At the right-hand side of the device are the volume rocker and the power button. The buttons offer just the right resistance when pushing them. You won’t press these buttons by accident.
Meanwhile, the hybrid SIM tray rests on the left-hand side of the Mix. You can either use two SIM cards with the Mix or sacrifice one to expand your storage capacity if the built-in 64GB storage isn’t enough for you.
At the bottom of the device are a pair of antenna bands, holes for the speakers and microphone, and a microUSB port. We would have liked a Type-C port instead, but we’ll give this one a pass since the Mix isn’t exactly primed as a high-end flagship smartphone.
At the top of are another is another antenna and a 3.5mm audio jack. Doogee was able to maintain the position of the speakers near the screen since the Mix is not completely bezelless.
The back of the Mix is a fingerprint magnet to say the least. Fortunately, the Mix comes with its own case.
The Mix’s overall design is a, well, a mix between good and bad. The near bezelless screen, thin profile, and 193g weight feels very comfortable in the hand. The shiny finish and weirdly positioned front camera, however, might take time to get used to.
User Interface
The Doogee Mix ships out with Android 7.0 Nougat with Doogee OS v2.0.0 on top. The icons and the overall design of the UI are reminiscent of an older phone. There are no pre-installed bloatware aside from the usual Google apps and WPS Office. There’s also no traditional app drawer. In its stead is an alphabetical order of all the apps you have. The Doogee OS just screams “customize me with your favorite launcher,” which we like since the Android platform is a more open environment for customization compared to iOS. The lack of pre-installed apps also gives the user more storage for their preferred apps.
Much like the AssistiveTouch on iPhones, the Doogee OS comes with Float Gesture control that makes life easier for those who are transitioning from iOS to the Doogee Mix.
Entertainment
As we’ve mentioned, the Doogee Mix has a 5.5-inch 720p display. The pixel density may be disappointing at close proximity but once it’s a couple of inches away from your face, you may find the AMOLED display to a bit a more usable. Speaking of the AMOLED display, it’s a bit oversaturated. Some may find this better in some instances like playing games or watching a colorful movie or video, but if you want to view photos in the way they’re meant to be seen, you might want to transfer your photos to a decent monitor or to another smartphone.
The bottom-firing speakers of the Doogee Mix are decent. They have a wide range and good detail, but they do lack booming bass much like most smartphones in this price range.
Camera
The Doogee Mix is armed with a 16MP + 8MP dual rear camera setup. Mix comes with most of the customary camera modes that you would expect such as Auto, Beautify, Monochrome, Panorama, and Manual or Pro Mode. There is a 2x zoom option with the Mix but unfortunately, it’s only digital zoom instead of optical zoom.
The Doogee Mix has its moments with some photos coming out with good detail and colors. You would have to work for it, however, since most of the time there is lack of detail and color with the photos. Low light isn’t phenomenal as well. Here are some photos that we were able to take with the Doogee Mix (Disclaimer: I’m not the best photographer in the world).
You can also take photos with a blurred background. The implementation in the Mix, however, isn’t the best. Only a radial button is available, you may have to work for the photo if you want to get a decent blurred background and the end result may not be as “bokehlicious” as you might want.
Taking selfies with the Doogee Mix is a bit of an awkward affair since the front camera is located at the bottom of the device. Of course, you can turn the smartphone upside down for a more natural selfie-taking position.
Performance
The Doogee Mix uses the Media Helio P25 chipset, which is technically a 10-core SoC. The cores, however, are split between the CPU and the GPU. The Helio P25 uses the usual big-little arrangement. The first cluster of the Helio P25 has a four core ARM-A53 processor clocked at 2.6GHz while its second processor is the same CPU underclocked at 1.6GHz. The remaining two cores are dedicated to the Mali-T880 MP2 GPU clocked at 1GHz. The 10-core chipset is complemented by 6GB of RAM.
The Doogee Mix was able to get a score 62462 in AnTuTu and 4533in PCMark, which is fairly decent for a PhP 10,000 smartphone. We rarely get any lag or stutter with the Mix. The overall performance is good enough for general use and gaming, and with the 6GB RAM, multi-tasking with lots of apps will never be a problem.
Connectivity
The Doogee Mix comes with a fairly standard hybrid SIM tray that allows the use of two SIM cards or a combination of a SIM card and a microSD card. Basics have also been covered by the Mix with 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. All are working as intended as we did not have any problems connecting to calls or finding a location in Google Maps.
Battery Life
The 3,380mAh battery of the Mix is more than enough for us in our daily grind. With medium use sprinkled with general use, gaming, and watching videos, we were able to get around 9 hours with one charge of the Doogee Mix. You can also extend the battery life of the Doogee Mix by sacrificing a bit of performance by switching from Sports Mode to Normal Mode. You can also extend the battery life by switching on Power Saving Mode.
Conclusion
Despite its eye-catching design, the Doogee Mix is a mixed bag. On one hand, you have a great performance, a large pool of RAM, near bezelless display, good speakers, fingerprint scanner, a battery that will last you a whole day, and Android 7.0. On the other hand, however, the screen is only 720p, the build is a fingerprint magnet, and the cameras make you work for a good picture. There are better phones out there that will give you more bang for the buck such as Huawei’s GR3 2017. Priced at PhP 10,995 for the 6GB variant and PhP 9,995 for the 4GB version, the Doogee Mix is an eye-catching, decent-performing smartphone if you can overlook some of its faults.
