Doogee Mix review: Dress to impress

Introduction

We've always tried to maintain an impartial perspective and shy away from bias in our work. Whether that shines through or not is really up to you, our readers to decide. However, we will admit right off the bat that Doogee hasn't really received any significant attention from us in the past. While there are perfectly good reasons for that as well, we still feel compelled to give the Doogee Mix the benefit of the doubt.

It's the first time we have a Doogee device for review. Normally, Doogee devices stay out of the scope of our review efforts but with a price under $200, the Doogee Mix looked too promising to pass on. This low price-tag gets you a (mostly) bezel-less design, an AMOLED screen, 4K video recording, a dual camera setup all in a pocketable form factor. Once you go through the specs list, you'd immediately understand how we got to this review.

Doogee Mix key features:

• Body: Metal frame and glass back
• Screen: 5.5" Super AMOLED display of 720p resolution; 294ppi; Gorilla Glass 5 protection
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat
• Chipset: 16nm, Octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 (MT6757CH) (4x 2.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 + 4x 1.6 GHz ARM Cortex-A53); Mali-T880MP2 GPU
• Memory: 4GB/6GB of RAM; 64/128GB storage, dedicated microSD slot for expansion
• Camera: Dual 16MP f/2.0 and 8MP f/2.0 main camera, LED flash, PDAF; 1080p video capture at 30fps; 5MP f/2.2 front-facing camera; 720p at 30fps video recording
• Video: 1080p at 30fps
• Connectivity: Dual nano SIM; LTE (Cat. 6); VoLTE Support; dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.1; FM Radio; microUSB; 3.5mm jack
• Battery: 3,380mAh
• Misc: Fingerprint reader; Magnetometer/Compass & Gyroscope sensors

Main shortcomings

• No notification LED
• No NFC
• microUSB port is getting outdated
• No quick charging

Doogee is less than subtle when it comes to the obvious Xiaomi Mi Mix design "inspiration". But it has merits of its own. It's more pocketable, it has a Samsung-made AMOLED panel and it's got a proper earpiece unlike Xiaomi's device.

The Samsung parts list doesn't stop there either. For some extra 2017 flare, Doogee also opted for a trendy dual camera setup. One powered by Samsung ISOCELL technology. And just when we thought that looks suspiciously like skillful "item checking" off of this year's "hot" list, the Doogee Mix throws a quite sensible 16nm Helio P25 chipset our way, an equally reasonable 4GB, plus 64GB memory setup in its base variant and a respectable 3,380mAh battery pack.

Doogee Mix press photos

The 720p screen resolution also sounds perfectly fitting and reasonable, as far as cost saving measures go. All things considered, the Doogie Mix specs sheet is mostly believable at this price point, albeit just a bit "clickbaity".

So, it all comes down to execution and whether Doogee has managed to craft the right Mix (cheesy, but we're rolling with it) to go with its undeniably right price. That being said, we invite you to keep an open mind as well and join us for our Doogee Mix review on the next page as we start to methodically dissect one potential caveat at a time.