DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – War House or Cart Horse?
Note – This Review was conducted with the DOOGEE S95 Pro with Android 9.0-20200210 (latest release at the time of publication)
The Doogee S95 Pro is far from the only rugged phone on the market. Between the rugged monsters on amazon electric stores, the Cat Phone and the others, it faces many competitors. However, the manufacturer’s approach is interesting, for more than one reason. For starters, the S95 Pro may be thick and bulky, but it has a certain charm. We feel what it is trying to do and hope to explain that to you too, as it is a really unique experience as mobile phones go. The technical part is not to be outdone either. The screen is quality and the processor is fast enough to run games. As a bonus, there is a battery offering a very good capacity, for a most impressive autonomy. And if the photographic component is not breathtaking, the performance of the module will still be sufficient for most people. But the real strength of the Doogee S95 Pro is, of course, its modular side. Admittedly, only two modules are available, but these are not gadgets and they bring real added value to the terminal, either in terms of its autonomy or its multimedia capabilities. Let’s take a closer look at the Doogee S95 Pro and see how it measures up!
DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – Conclusion
The S95 Pro has fundamentally reshuffled the very top of the rugged smartphone market. It is fast, it has plenty of storage and memory and a useful set of (optional) accessories plus very solid photographic credentials. With an affordable price tag and few minor letdowns, the S95 Pro will provide a great experience for those looking for a great all-rounder that can perform everywhere and anywhere, regardless of the weather and location. DOOGEE has hit a sweet spot but keen an eye open for out for models from Blackview and Ulefone that are set to launch soon. And check out the dark horse that is AGM Mobile when it announces its annual flagship model. Doogee delivers yet another great piece of engineering with the S95 Pro, the fastest non-Qualcomm ruggedised smartphone that came through our labs. It has almost everything you’d ask from a solid, waterproof smartphone at a very palatable price.
| DOOGEE S95 PRO Pros | DOOGEE S95 PRO Cons |
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DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – Presentation
Introducing theDoogee recently unveiled the S95 Pro, a rugged modular device built for backpackers and those who spend most of their time on construction sites. In early October, DOOGEE introduced its new smartphone called DOOGEE S95 Pro. This is the second generation of modular rugged smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer. This is the golden age of ruggedised smartphones; heated competition between some of the smaller players and the increasing realisation by a growing audience that a bog-standard smartphone is often fragile and by the time you put a casing, you might just as well buy something that’s waterproof, shockproof and scratchproof. With that in mind, meet the S95 Pro, a top of the range smartphone from prolific rugged device manufacturer DOOGEE. The Doogee S95 Pro is clearly an atypical phone. It does not look like any other and it is quite normal since it aims at a very particular use. A use which of course has an impact on the design and ergonomics of the terminal.
The design language of DOOGEE has evolved over the past three years into something more refined, through hundreds of man-hours of research and development. You can check past reviews of the T5, the S50, S60, S70, S80 and S90 to see how that has changed.
It weighs 284g without any accessories and the battery pack bumps it to 390g. Its overall size, 167 x 77 x 16mm, is significant without being overwhelming. Put it this way, it feels reassuringly heavy and chunky thanks to a metal frame covered with what DOOGEE’s marketing department calls “industry-leading rugged rubber sheet”
DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – Design
DOOGEE provided with a rather sizeable parcel. The phone itself was housed in a smaller box with the detachable speakers and the battery pack separately packaged. There are no earphones, but you do get a fast charger (24W), a USB cable, an actual physical product manual, a pair of wipes, a warranty card and a screen protector.
There are two SIM trays, a first in a smartphone to our knowledge, the second one can take either microSD card or a second SIM. Having two of those make it a bit less cumbersome to swap cards or SIM.
There’s a dedicated SOS button on the left edge and a power-off button, a fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker on the opposite edge.
On the back are located three camera sensors plus a lonely LED flash. The Type-C connector at the bottom is covered with a rubber flap, a hint that this phone is IP68/IP69K and MIL-STD810G tested. The triple camera of the Doogee S95 Pro 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 serves as a wide-angle sensor, but the alleged telephoto sensor turned out to be not working. All zooming in on the camera app works purely digital and is accompanied by a reduction in 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 scenes and make automatic adjustments to the settings. In the test, however, I could only observe that colors are sometimes enhanced.
The S95 Pro uses a Mediatek Helio P90 chipset, which competes squarely in the mid-range battleground, facing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710. It is paired with 8GB of system memory, likely to be LPDDR4X type and 128GB Samsung UFS 2.0 storage. Not as fast as SSD in laptops but still far faster than the usual eMMC found elsewhere.
In the same way that we do not judge a book by its cover, it is impossible to judge a smartphone by relying solely on its design and ergonomics. The time has, therefore, come to tackle the technical part.
S95 Pro Specifications
- Weight: 284g
- Dimensions: 168 x 79.3 x 13.8mm
- OS: Android Pie
- Screen size: 6.3-inch
- Resolution: 2160 x 1080
- CPU: Helio P90
- RAM: 8GB of RAM
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery: 5150mAh
- Rear camera: 48MP + 2MP + 8MP + 8MP
- Front camera: 8MP
Like its predecessor, DOOGEE’s new flagship product supports wireless charging (up to 10W). This one however significantly improves its photo credentials thanks to the presence of no less than four camera sensors including the popular Sony IMX586, a 48-megapixel one, which is complemented by two other 8-megapixel sensors. Also in the front is a 16-megapixel front-facing selfie camera.
Other noteworthy features include NFC, a 5150mAh battery, a 6.3-inch screen with a 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 overlay; sadly no oleophobic coating here.
The battery pack has a 3500mAh capacity and magnetically attaches to the phone; the speaker module has a stand and two 27mm speakers. It has a separate battery that can last for 10 hours and, unlike the battery pack, will cover the phone’s camera. Note that these accessories are not waterproof or shock resistant; dropping is likely to cause damage.
As already mentioned, the Doogee S95 Pro has a 6.3-inch display and a waterdrop notch. With a resolution of 2160 × 1080 pixels, the S95 Pro achieves a pixel density of 383 ppi. The display relies on IPS technology, which produces a great picture in the S95 Pro. The colors are rich and the contrasts, as well as the viewing angles, are convincing.
I was also impressed by the black level, especially when compared to other IPS displays. The maximum brightness of the display is acceptable and the operation of the touch screen was always quick and reliable.
For the S95 Pro, modules are available that can be attached to the back of the smartphone using magnets. Unfortunately, only one speaker and one battery module are available so far, and the modules of the predecessor, the S90, are not compatible with the successor.
The loudspeaker module for the S95 Pro has its own battery, which can be charged using the built-in USB-C connection. When connecting the module, the loudspeaker must also be activated using the dedicated button. Then the music and voices sound will be more voluminous and has a much stronger bass than you are used to from a smartphone speaker. In addition, the loudspeaker is significantly louder, so that even a big room can be well sounded with it.
The battery module has a capacity of 3,500 mAh and thus extends the runtime of the S95 Pro by around 4-5 hours. The battery of the module can also be charged via the built-in USB-C connection and the current charge level can be viewed via the LED display on the back.
DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – Performance
Featurewise, you get a useful SOS alert call setup, DuraSpeed (which limits the impact of background apps) plus the ubiquitous toolbag, a set of apps that can be found in most Mediatek-based rugged smartphones. Two features that stand out are the sound meter and the barometer.
When it comes to overall performance, the S95 Pro is by far the most powerful Mediatek-based rugged smartphones we’ve ever tested but it still lags the Snapdragon 845 found in the AGM X3. It still delivers some great numbers both when it comes to general graphics performance (thanks to the PowerVR GPU). Ditto for the storage subsystem which fared much better than eMMC storage. The adoption of the UFS protocol means faster and more consistent performance as the benchmark numbers have shown. The BV9800 Pro from Blackview is probably the one rugged smartphone to beat at the time of writing. Blackview took the unusual route of Indiegogo to make its project become true.
With the backing of more than 2,700 investors and more than $1.1 million investment, the 9800 Pro, which should sell for about $500, has less memory (6GB) and a weaker CPU (Helio P70) but a much bigger battery and a unique FLIR Lepton Thermal Imaging camera. Then there’s the Ulefone Armor 7 which matches the S95 Pro (same price, same CPU, same memory, same camera, same storage capacity) but adds a bigger battery, UV sensor and a heartbeat monitor. Unlike the S95 Pro though, it cannot take extra accessories.
S95 Pro Performance
- Geekbench: 399 (single-core); 1481 (multi-core)
- Antutu: 212,781
- PCMark (Work 2.0): 9,806
- Passmark: 7,616
- Passmark CPU: 177,046
- Androbench (sequential): 517.63 (sequential read); 188.71 (sequential write)
- Androbench (random): 149.42 (random read); 31.86 (random write)
In terms of performance, the Doogee S95 Pro 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 Pro achieves an Antutu score of 216,927 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.
DOOGEE S95 PRO Review – Conclusion
The S95 Pro has fundamentally reshuffled the very top of the rugged smartphone market. It is fast, it has plenty of storage and memory and a useful set of (optional) accessories plus very solid photographic credentials. With an affordable price tag and few minor letdowns, the S95 Pro will provide a great experience for those looking for a great all-rounder that can perform everywhere and anywhere, regardless of the weather and location. DOOGEE has hit a sweet spot but keen an eye open for out for models from Blackview and Ulefone that are set to launch soon. And check out the dark horse that is AGM Mobile when it announces its annual flagship model. Doogee delivers yet another great piece of engineering with the S95 Pro, the fastest non-Qualcomm ruggedised smartphone that came through our labs. It has almost everything you’d ask from a solid, waterproof smartphone at a very palatable price.
| DOOGEE S95 PRO Pros | DOOGEE S95 PRO Cons |
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Currently, Doogee has several Promotions running on the S95 Rugged Pro and you can find out more by visiting the listed pages below: