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Doogee S96 Pro: test / review

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Published on: 15-05-2021 / Modified: 11-12-2022
The Doogee S96 Pro is a phone of a somewhat special category, it is aimed at a professional audience looking for a rugged phone capable of withstanding shocks and water. This is not the first phone of its kind that I have tested and I was amazed to see that the interest in this genre of phone went beyond the professional audience I was thinking of. This phone may be very suitable for a sports audience playing outdoor sports which can damage a phone, there are also those who have a natural tendency to break their phone, so the audience for the Doogee S96 Pro is a little larger than what one might imagine.

The problem with this kind of phone is that in exchange for robustness, you often have to sacrifice performance and / or photo quality. On paper this Doogee S96 Pro should reconcile the advantages of a rugged phone with those of a normal entry-level phone. So I'm going to test it like a normal phone and see if it's able to stand up to entry-level references like the Redmi Note 9 or Redmi Note 10.

Manufacturer web site:
https://www.doogee.cc/
Site where I have bought the Doogee S96 Pro: https://www.banggood.com/custlink/mKmhaoePS8

Structure of my tests

I test the phones according to a pre-established structure (see below) to provide you with as much information as possible. Unfortunately, this takes a long time. Some tests like network performance tests take several days and for photo tests I sometimes have to wait until the weather is suitable to take pictures in good conditions. I am therefore obliged to publish the tests step by step, so I invite you to come back if the test is not complete at the time of your visit.

Price Doogee S96 Pro

The list below shows the prices for the Doogee S96 Pro from more than 50 sites around the world. If you are not satisfied with any price, you can subscribe to a price alert to be the first to be notified when the price drops.

Timeline

February 22, 2021: purchase of the Doogee S96 Pro for pre-sale on Banggood
May 12, 2021: after more than two months of waiting, I finally received the Doogee, the test can finally begin

Why this phone?

I'm not a target audience for this kind of phone but that doesn't mean rugged type phones aren't interesting. I have tested several models and these phones really have a reason to exist, they take on a very brutal side without blushing and in some cases they are so well equipped that they can compete with a traditional phone.

I bought the Doogee S96 Pro because I was positively surprised by the S58 Pro that I tested a few months ago and then because on paper, this S96 Pro is much closer to an entry-level mainstream phone. From a performance point of view, it offers a performance comparable to a Redmi Note 9 and this should be sufficient for a large part of the public who buy this type of phone. For the photo, I find the Samsung S5KGM1 as the main sensor, it is the same sensor as in the Redmi Note 9T, Poco M3 or the Oppo A93. Rugged phones are often equipped with older and lower quality photo sensors, this is not the case here, it remains to be seen whether the integration into this phone is successful.

Alongside photography and performance, the S96 Pro generously offers 8Gb of RAM and 128Gb of storage expandable with a memory card. In this price range, I have never seen this. With 8Gb you can open a large number of applications at the same time and the storage will allow you to store a large number of photos and videos.

The Doogee S96 Pro uses a Mediatek processor and this often results in above average GPS accuracy, this can be very useful for those who use this phone outdoors and sometimes in remote areas (eg hiking in the forest / mountain).

Unpacking

Phones from the Doogee brand have the particularity of being packed in flat boxes which take up a lot of space. The arrangement in the box is also unusual because where most manufacturers try to save space by stacking all the elements of the box, Doogee has chosen the space as to properly present the product and leave space. 'space between each component. The box contains the phone, a manual, an audio headset, a wrist strap, a scraper to scrub the phone, a usb cable and a charger. Doogee has packed his phone well, maybe other brands should be inspired by it. Doogee is not a premium brand and they mainly sell rugged phones, the choice for this type of packaging is quite curious but I'm not going to criticize a manufacturer when they do something right.

First configuration

The Doogee S96 Pro runs Android 10 (at launch) and purists will appreciate that this version of Android is completely free of unwanted apps. Doogee is one of the small manufacturers that does not make changes to the operating system. The start-up procedure is therefore limited to the strict minimum and it will not take you more than 2 minutes for the phone to be operational.

Finish

The Doogee S96 Pro was not designed to win a beauty contest but I find it has its own identity and I find the design to be quite successful. It is not a phone to strut around in society but despite its brutal appearance, its appearance follows a certain logic and everything seems to help protect the phone from a fall or a shock.

At the rear, the photo sensors have been integrated into the shell and the whole has been reinforced by a metal protection. The rest of the back is protected by a rigid plastic shell and metal reinforcements on the sides.

Seen from the side, we realize how thick this phone is, it is also very heavy because with its 310 grams it is one of the heaviest phones that I was able to test. The sides are reinforced with a metal layer and on the right side we find the volume buttons, the ignition button and the fingerprint sensor. Although the configuration seems classic, I note however some differences with what I am used to testing. The power button is very close to the volume buttons and it will take some getting used to not pressing the volume button instead of the power button. The fingerprint sensor is not located on the ignition button, it is located a little lower. On the left we find the SIM drawer which can be opened without a needle, it can contain 2 SIM cards and a memory card. A little further down, there is a customizable button to which you can associate up to 3 actions (single click, double click, long press) and for each action you can associate an application. This customizable button is often present on this kind of phone and I find it very practical, other manufacturers should be inspired by it!

The USB-C port is protected by a rubber tab, it is located next to a jack type audio output.

One of the disadvantages of this type of phone is the size of the screen because there are often large borders which greatly reduce the size of the screen. The Doogee also has large bezels but still offers a 6.22-inch screen.

In the end, I can't say that the level of finish of this phone is comparable to a classic phone but I clearly cannot say that this phone is a failure, it assumes its style perfectly. and Doogee has done a good job of making this type of phone more accessible.

Specifications

The information below comes from the Device Info HW application. The application provides detailed technical information about the tested phone.I bought the Doogee S96 Pro in its 8Gb / 128Gb version, there are no other versions for the moment. Since I don't often test a phone from this brand, I don't have a lot of benchmarks for the hardware. Most of the components are unique to Doogee and I haven't really found anything in common with other brands like Xiaomi (apart from CPU / GPU and memory type).

CPU / GPU Performance

The Doogee S96 Pro is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G90T CPU which is also present in other phones like the Realme 6 or the Redmi Note 8 Pro. It is not a very recent processor but it will offer enough performance to run most applications and games and it will ensure good fluidity of the phone.

For the graphics part, the Doogee is based on an Arm Mali-G76 GPU and here too, I find this GPU in other phones like the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Realme 6 or again the Redmi Note 10S. It is therefore the same observation here, the Doogee S96 Pro is not equipped with the latest innovations but it is equipped at the same level as very popular telephones in the consumer segment.

Benchmark Antutu/3DMark

The Doogee S96 Pro is not a phone designed for gamers or those who need good performance but it still offers a level of performance comparable to a Redmi Note 8 Pro which at the time of its launch offered one of the best reports price / performance. The Redmi Note 8 Pro has been around since 2019, so the Doogee is a bit behind the curve but this level of performance remains quite comfortable for most common games and applications.

I got a score of 265308 points on Antutu, this ranks the Doogee S96 Pro at the level of the Redmi Note 10 Pro in terms of performance, the price / performance ratio remains quite good despite the use of equipment present on the market for 2 years. The speed of the memory will also allow fluidity in everyday use, you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy it.





Gaming

To test the performance in game, I download the mobile PUBG game and evaluate the in-game experience, graphics level and depth of vision. This game is quite demanding and should help you evaluating the performance of a phone. As I wrote in the previous paragraph, I didn't expect to be able to play games like PUBG Mobile in HD and yet the gaming experience is pretty good. I was able to run PUBG Mobile with HD textures without any problem. The screen resolution in 720p helps lighten the work of the GPU where most phones use a 1080p screen, the resolution is lower but it did not affect the gaming experience, the pixel density is sufficient.

Network performance

The Doogee S96 Pro offers very wide 4G frequency coverage, so you should be able to use it anywhere in Europe, the B28 frequency is covered and will allow you to use this phone with operators like Free in France.

Signal 4G (before december 2020)

The ability to pick up the network correctly is an essential element for a phone but it is only very rarely measured. To measure a phone's ability to pick up the network, I perform a large number of measurements on the same cells to be able to compare phones under similar conditions. The signal is measured in dBm, a value of -90dBm indicates a worse signal than -70dBm. These measurements are therefore taken under real conditions and not in a laboratory, they are not scientific but give a good indication of performance.



Signal 4G (from December 2020)

I decided to change the methodology for measuring the network because I noticed that the configuration of the mobile network changes over time. This makes it more difficult to compare phones because the conditions are no longer exactly the same.

To overcome this problem, I set up a device that captures 24 hours a day about ten parameters from the mobile network (ex: cell id, rssi, rsrq, snr, frequency,...). I then place the phone next to the device for 24 to 48 hours taking the same measurements so that I can compare them.

Overview of the phones tested with this methodology



The Doogee is wrapped in real armor to protect it from impact and so far all phones of this type that I have tested have exhibited poorer network sensitivity. The Doogee S96 Pro does not have this problem at all, on the contrary, it even allows itself to obtain a better signal than my measuring device, this is the first time that this has happened to me.

On more than 1200 measurements, I obtained an average signal of -91.21 dBm while my reference device is above -94 dBm. It is therefore an excellent score which can be seen quite well on the following graph:

Download/Upload speed

To test the download speed, I have identified some 4G cells offering good performance where I test all my devices several times to see what download and upload speed they can achieve.

Wifi performance

To test a phone's ability to receive the network properly, I take measurements near my router and then remotely (and always at the same place). This gives me an average in dBm where a value of -90 dBm indicates poorer performance than a value at -30 dBm.


Wifi signal

I got a -25dBm signal near the router, it's not a bad score but it's not a great score either, I've tested many phones that do better. From a distance, I get a signal that also ranks in the average. I guess phone protection plays a role in wifi sensitivity here.



Download/Upload speed

To test the speed in Wifi, I connect to my router in 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (if available) and use the Ookla application to measure the speed.

GPS performance

To test the quality of the GPS signal I use the Offline Maps application and I make the same train trip in pedestrian mode. Why? In pedestrian mode, the GPS does not artificially correct the signal to stick to the road, it has no markings, so you can see the actual position. I then use an application to measure the accuracy of the signal. The Doogee S96 Pro offers good GPS performance, this is often the case with Mediatek CPUs because where I get an accuracy of 3m with a Snapdragon, I get an accuracy of 1 meter with a Mediatek. I did this test in the open air, so you have to add a meter or two if you are in a place where the sky is not clear.

Battery range

The Doogee s96 Pro is equipped with a huge battery of over 6000 mAh, this partly explains the weight of the phone. Who says big battery also says long charging time, it took me almost 7 hours to fully charge the battery. The charge is quite linear as shown in the following graph:

With such a battery, the autonomy is good and will ensure you can last more than a day in intensive use but this autonomy hides a poor energy score. If autonomy is important it is above all because the battery capacity is important, but I have tested phones that offer greater autonomy with a lower battery capacity. This is partly explained by the high brightness of the screen, the autonomy is also not linear and curiously, I observe here that a 100% screen offers an autonomy 1.5 less than the autonomy with a screen at 50%, I usually have at least a factor of 2.

Photo camera test

To test the quality of photos produced by a phone, I do a technical test (resolution, sharpness, chromatic aberration,...) in studio (identical conditions) to evaluate the technical part objectively. From the second half of 2020, I built my own laboratory to take completely objective technical measurements. I then take pictures in real conditions to see how the camera performs. I then evaluate these photos according to my criteria but I publish the photos so that you can evaluate the result according to your criteria.

Hardware

The Doogee S96 Pro is equipped with 4 sensors on the back. They are integrated in a circular structure well protected by the armor of the phone. The main sensor is a Samsung S5KGM1 sensor that can be found in many other mid-range phones (ex: Redmi Note 9T or Realme 6), this sensor is capable of producing good photos. The ultra wide angle sensor is a Samsung S5KGM1 which is not very widespread, I have not had the opportunity to test it yet.

Besides traditional sensors (wide angle and ultra wide angle), the Doogee is also equipped with a GalaxyCore GC2385 macro sensor and an infrared sensor that will allow you to take pictures in the most complete darkness. I have not yet had the opportunity to test this kind of sensor, I'm curious to see what this sensor is capable of doing.

Default app

The default photo app works pretty much the same as what you can find with other brands. The main entry points are listed at the bottom of the screen and the configuration of each entry point is at the top of the screen. The main entry points are:
- night vision
- video
- image
- macro

- photo ultra HD - plus: night mode, pro mode, hdr mode, gif mode, filter, beauty, panorama, time-lapse photography and smart scan.
The choice to put some popular features like HDR in the "more" menu is a bit odd, it's not very intuitive but for the rest, I didn't notice anything particularly confusing with this application .

I was able to run GCam 6.1 on this phone but the app is not stable, sometimes it works, sometimes the app crashes.

Photo quality

Photo test / studio

For this first studio test I took a photo with each sensor and when it was possible to use filters or enhancements, I used them (eg: AI mode, HDR, ... )
The main sensor is doing pretty well for this kind of phone (photo at the top of this paragraph), the photo is slightly underexposed and the colors are a little too cold but in this price range , this is a completely correct result. This is the first time that I have tested a robust smartphone that does not have any major flaws in terms of photography.

The ultra wide angle sensor also produces interesting photos for this kind of sensor. The distortion is very pronounced but it's not surprising, these sensors are not designed to take pictures of toys but on the other hand I find that the exposure level is good and that the colorimetry is also quite good for this kind of sensor. The great weakness of ultra wide angle sensors is the amount of light that hits the sensor, but here I think the sensor is doing pretty well. I usually get photos that are less well exposed.

I also tested the macro sensor but the result is not very good, the photo is very dark and the colors tend towards green. So I still had one of the four sensors to test: the infrared sensor. This sensor relies on infrared lighting placed on the back of the phone, so you can take photos and videos in complete darkness. It's an interesting concept, but it's not designed for close-up photography as its minimum focus distance is greater than that of other sensors. In the photos which follow, you will see that the police car is completely blurry.



Photo test / sunny


Main sensor: Samsung S5KGM1

The Samsung S5KGM1 sensor is a widely used sensor, it can also be found in the following phones: Realme 7, Realme 8, Xiaomi Mi 9T, Motorola G9 Play Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, ...
Among these phones, I have tested a few, so I will be able to compare the photo quality but I want to clarify two things before starting . I obtained rather average results with this sensor on the Redmi Note 9 and the Redmi Note 9T and the second point is that rugged type phones often produce lower quality images than their equivalent in traditional smartphones. These are two warnings therefore which suggest that the photo quality will not be exceptional. Is that the case? Let’s see that right away.

The photo I chose to illustrate this test shows that the Doogee S96 Pro will not follow the direction of the Redmi Note 9 because the colors are not greenish like on the Xiaomi. The treatment provided by Doogee is therefore better than that of Xiaomi, it is quite surprising but the result is quite striking. The sharpness is also much more pronounced on the Doogee, it is also too much because when I look at the photo on a large screen at 100% I clearly see flaws of a too pronounced sharpness, this is seen much less on a phone screen. I was very surprised to see during my tech test that the Doogee had one of the highest sharpness levels among the phones I tested. This is also true in reality.

Dynamic range (= ability to capture bright and dark areas at the same time) is not great but in good weather it won't be a problem. If you are in the shade and photographing a brightly lit area, it is most likely that the shade is underexposed or the sky is overexposed. In this price range it is quite frequent.

The sharpness is therefore too high but not everywhere, the management of the blur is not uniform, I see in particular a zone of blur on the left which either comes from a bad management of the blur or comes from the protective plastic of the sensor. I've had this sort of thing on a rugged phone before, the protective plastic will alter the colors.

The colors are a little too cold but remain in realistic hues, I do not have a dominance of green as with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 where the photos were all missed because of this problem.

All these points seem negative but you have to take into account that this is a rugged type phone and you have to take into account the price bracket. If we take into account these two criteria, the photos are not bad at all. You're not going to do masterpieces with the Doogee S96 Pro, but if you need a phone like this, you won't be making a bad choice.
Secondary sensor: Samsung S5K4H7
Ultra wide angle sensors do not produce very good quality photos and when used in this kind of phone, sometimes it's even worse. The Doogee is still doing well because for a phone of this type, it is doing pretty well. The Samsung ultra wide angle sensor gives us the full menu of the problems that we encounter with an ultra wide angle sensor (smoothing, colorimetry, blur, chromatic aberration, ...) but the photos are quite viewable. You can see here that the Doogee applies increased sharpness in the central area, this is not a problem on a small screen but if you look at the photo on a computer screen, the excess sharpness is visible.

Photo test / cloudy

Not yet available / tested

Test photo / night

I found that for daytime photos the Doogee S96 Pro did pretty well but for nighttime photos it didn't. The photos are very noisy, the sharpness is not good and the focus area is sometimes a little strange. The results are even worse with the ultra wide angle sensor. The infrared sensor on the other hand makes interesting photos, the level of detail is much better.

Video quality

Stabilisation

The Doogee S96 Pro does not have stabilization for 4k video and this can be seen very clearly on the video, the shocks are absolutely not damped and the image goes a little in all the senses. It is quite rare in this price range to have effective stabilization, so there is nothing abnormal here.

Video normale conditions
The Doogee S96 Pro is capable of producing videos at 4K 30 FPS. The comments on the quality of the photos will follow somewhat what I said for the photos. I have inserted 3 videos here, 2 videos in sunny weather (1 in landscape and one in portrait) and a third video in cloudy weather. The sharpening boost is significantly less noticeable here and that's a good thing. The colors in good weather are a little too cold but not too far from reality. On the other hand, in bad weather the colors take on a greenish tint like what I had seen with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9. I also have the same observation concerning the blur area.

Video low light

The sensor for video is the same as for photos, so I'm not surprised that the quality of the video is not good. The sensor cannot find an area of focus consistently, digital noise is very noticeable, and the exposure level is too low.

Audio quality

To test the quality of the phone's audio output, I connect the device's audio output to a measuring tool, then play sounds on all frequencies and measure the differences between the original sound and the sound produced by the phone. In this way I measure the phone's ability to correctly reproduce all sounds.

Frequency Response

This test is intended to test the device's ability to correctly reproduce all frequencies. The white line in the middle of the graph is the ideal situation and the other colors come from tests on different phones. A deviation from the reference line indicates a deviation from the ideal situation. To see good sound at all frequencies, it is therefore necessary to get as close as possible to the reference line. The Doogee S96 Pro is able to reproduce most frequencies correctly it tends to deviate from the norm more quickly in the high frequencies, so it loses a bit in smoothness but the sound quality is quite fine. actually comparable to other phones in this price range.

Dynamic Range

This test is designed to test a phone's ability to play sounds at different volume levels. Here too, the phones must be as close as possible to the reference. The Doogee produces a medium power sound on all frequencies, I compared it with the Umidigi Bison and it is a bit more powerful and more stable through all frequencies. The maximum power is on the other hand in the average, it is possible to listen to the sound thoroughly without exploding the ears.

Noise Level

This test aims to identify if the device under test is able to reproduce sounds without too much noise. A high score indicates a low parasite rate, a lower score indicates a higher presence of parasites. I didn't notice any interference problems on the Doogee, it actually sounds a little better than the Umidigi Bison.

The Doogee S96 Pro is not a phone designed for music fans but it delivers good sound quality with the headset, the sound quality produced is quite similar to others phones in the same price range.

Screen quality

To test the screen, I use a colorimetric probe that measures the color accuracy of a screen, as well as other parameters to see if a screen is able to correctly reproduce an image. I also test the brightness level to determine if the screen will be able to display an image in full sunlight.

Colorimetry

Rugged phones don't usually set standards when it comes to screen quality, first and foremost they have to live up to their promise of strength and water resistance before they can produce beautiful colors. When I tested the Doogee s96 Pro for the first time, I had very poor results in colorimetry, but luckily I didn't stop there. While searching in the settings, I found the possibility to change the color temperature and so I increased the color temperature to a level where the colorimetry has improved greatly. I went from a dE greater than 10 to a dE 4.62. This is not an extraordinary colorimetric score but for a phone of this type it is quite correct. With the change in color temperature, white rose from nearly 10000k to 6800k.



Brightness / Contrast

The Doogee S96 Pro is equipped with an LCD screen, so the contrast is not as good as an amoled screen. I measured a contrast of 1: 1282, this is an average value, I got a fairly similar contrast on the Poco X3 Pro. I was a little disappointed with the brightness as this type of phone is designed to be used outdoors, so the screen must be able to compensate for ambient light to ensure good readability but I got a brightness of 499 cd / m² with my probe. It's a pretty decent score but I expected more for this kind of phone.

Biometry

The fingerprint sensor is located on the right in a dedicated location. Doogee has chosen to separate the ignition button from the fingerprint sensor. This sensor works flawlessly, it is very fast and located at the right place.

Operating system

Doogee ships its phones with a clean Android version, so there's no extra layer or unwanted apps. Here is a demonstration of the main screens of the interface:

Encoutered bugs

Not yet available / tested

Accessories Doogee S96 Pro

Compare Doogee S96 Pro with the others

Test / Review conclusion

The Doogee S96 Pro is a somewhat brutal looking phone like most smartphones of this type, it would almost make you want to use it for hammering nails. So this is not the kind of phone you are going to use to shine in society, but you are not going to have to make many other sacrifices, however. The Doogee S96 Pro takes the good basics of a normal smartphone to wrap everything in a real armor and in this price range, the result is quite interesting.

The Doogee S96 Pro is not only a rugged phone, it also offers good performance allowing you to run just about any game or application with sometimes a few concessions on the graphics level. for games. The really usable screen is large enough for this kind of phone, the colorimetry is almost correct which is also quite rare for this kind of phone. The Doogee has a camera that can be found in many other phones and the processing of the photos is far from bad. You're not going to produce masterpieces, but the Doogee does better than quite a few other phones that use the same camera. There is also the infrared camera, I had not yet tested this kind of curiosity, I can perfectly imagine that this kind of camera will interest a professional audience faced with a too dark room.

The good surprises do not end there, the Doogee S96 Pro offers good sensitivity to 4G network, it has a huge battery offering a battery life of several days and the GPS signal offers precision 1 meter in clear sky.

The Doogee S96 Pro is therefore quite versatile and does not really have a big flaw apart from maybe its size and weight but it's not like Doogee was trying to fool you on the commodity is an assumed choice. I would probably have preferred a slightly brighter screen, photos with better blur management and better colorimetry but I can hardly take this phone down except maybe for the sound quality of the speaker but this kind phone never makes a good sound.

Strengths

- robustness / water resistance
- battery capacity
- 4G network sensitivity
- GPS sensitivity
- infrared camera
- customizable buttons
- performance

Weaknesses

- sharpness of photos sometimes too intense
- uneven management of blur in photos
- screen brightness a little tight for use in direct sunlight
- sound from the external speaker poor quality

Alternatives to this product

Among the phones I have tested I suggest the Umidigi Bison or the Ulefone Armor 7 but the Doogee S96 Pro scores better for the reasons stated in the conclusion.

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