Blackview BV8800 review

Android 11 with DoKe OS 3

The Blackview BV8800 comes with Android 11 out of the box with DoKe OS 3 launcher. Even if there is an extra layer of the interface, the experience is close to vanilla Android and mostly clutter-free.

The software looks a lot like the vanilla Android, minus the icons. The home screen, lock screen, notification shade, and the recent apps menu resemble those of the stock Android.

Android OS on Blackview BV8800

Looking deeper into the Settings menu reveals the changes that Blackview has made - there is a Personalization page with themes and icons, gesture and key settings where you can assign three different functions to the side button on the left - one upon the short press, another one - on long press, and the third option is when you double click it. You can also swap the Google homescreen for a Smart one populated with various shortcuts, widgets and smart suggestions.

Various settings

There is an app drawer available on the Blackview BV8800, but you can disable it if that's not your thing.

The app package is pretty straightforward. The default Android apps are pre-installed, so you have a gallery, a media player, and a file manager. There is also an FM radio app by Blackview, a custom Notebook app with support for reminders, and a ToolBag app.

The FM radio requires a wired USB-C headset to work.

FM radio • Notes • ToolBag

The ToolBag is probably the most powerful app you will find on BV8800.

Toolbag

It offers Compass, Level tool, Flashlight, AR level for paintings, Height meter (seems like a gimmick), Magnifier, Alarm bell, Protractor, Sound meter (uses the microphone), Pedometer, Bubble level, Plumb bob and Barometer.

Toolbag

There are no ads across the UI whatsoever, so you can be sure you won't be bothered by unwanted spam here and there. And that pretty much covers the Blackview BV8800 starter package.

Performance and benchmarks

The Blackview BV8800 employs the Helio G96 chipset by MediaTek. It is fabricated on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC. The Helio G96 has the usual octa-core CPU with two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz.

The Helio G96 chip features a dual-core Mali-G57 GPU. Unlike the previous G9x chips, we have a dual-core configuration instead of quad-core, which is somewhat disappointing.

Finally, the Blackview BV8800 is available in just one configuration with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB non-expandable storage.

We ran the usual benchmarks, and the scores are in.

The CPU benchmarks are alright - the processor is capable of handling whatever you throw at it these days.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2801
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2225
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1800
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Blackview BV8800
  1752
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  1610
• Ulefone Armor 9
  1498

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  771
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  736
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  520
• Blackview BV8800
  516
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  502
• Ulefone Armor 9
  401

The GPU performance is okay, it won't do for HFR gaming, but it's alright if you want to spend a few hours playing games. Just don't expect to get the best visuals - if you want a smooth experience, you will need to lower a lot of the graphics settings.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  28
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  22
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  18
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  12
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  11
• Blackview BV8800
  10
• Ulefone Armor 9
  7.9

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  38
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  29
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  22
• Blackview BV8800
  20
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  20
• Ulefone Armor 9
  17

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2491
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2014
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  1487
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1101
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  1100
• Blackview BV8800
  1094

Quite expectedly, the AnTuTu tests put the BV8800 scores around the bottom of the chart.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  429675
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  375528
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  294194
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  290797
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  261309
• Blackview BV8800
  254849
• Ulefone Armor 9
  197000

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  506432
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  437872
• Ulefone Power Armor 13
  351678
• Infinix Note 11 Pro
  343527
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093
• Blackview BV8800
  288964

Finally, we ran the two stress tests we always do - CPU Throttle and 3D Mark Wild Life.

The Blackview BV8800 did well on the CPU Throttle test by keeping about 70% of its maximum performance during an hour of maximum CPU usage.

Later, it scored 99.6% stability on the 3D Mark Stress Test - an outstanding result. These numbers mean the BV8800 offers top-notch stability and long-lasting peak performance. Even better, we never felt the phone hot, it barely gets warm even when using 100% of the available hardware resources.

CPU test • GPU test

The Blackview BV8800 offers mediocre performance, though stable and reliable. It's not a gaming phone, but it wasn't made to be such. We'd say the G96 chip does an adequate job even if we would have preferred it to have been a bit higher tier.