Doogee S90 Review – The ‘Schwarzenegger’ Phone

Damien McFerran 12/04/2019 – 3:55pm

The toughest handset ever?

£300.00

While they're unlikely to turn heads in the same way as the iPhone XS and Galaxy S10, 'rugged phones' are popular with a small sector of smartphone consumers, largely due to the fact that they don't shatter into a million pieces if you look at them the wrong way. Modern handsets may be engineering masterpieces but it never ceases to amaze how fragile they are, so there's certainly a viable market for phones that can withstand a little bit of punishment. The Doogee S90 is one of those phones – in fact, it's one of the toughest devices we've ever reviewed on Know Your Mobile. It's the Ross Kemp of smartphones. Yes, we went there.

But is the S90's general ruggedness enough to make it worth a look? How does the rest of the package shape up? And what's all this modular business we keep hearing about? Let's dive right in and find out.

Doogee S90 Review: Design & Display

Pretty much every 'tough' smartphone looks like a tank, and the S90 is no exception. It's a massive slab of metal, rubber, plastic and glass, and unless you have the fingers of a basketball player, you're not going to be able to use this with a single hand. The black metal frame is protected by rubber pads on each of the four corners, designed to minimize drop damage. There's a hard plastic ridge around the screen which protects it when placed face-down on a flat surface, while the back of the phone is hard plastic.

Two ports are present on the S90 – the one on the bottom edge is the USB-C connector, which is covered by a plastic flap. On the left-hand side of the device there's another flap, this time for the SIM card tray. On the opposite side of the phone you'll find the volume rocker, power button and dedicated camera key, while on the left-hand side there's a custom button which can be used to launch three apps of your choosing, either with a short press, double-press or long press.

The S90 basically looks like a phone designed by Transformers-era Michael Bay, but the oddest element of the whole device is the set of contact pins on the back, which allow a series of modules to be connected to the handset. The unit we reviewed came with a 5000mAh battery pack, which doubles the phone's capacity at the expense of making it even larger than it already is. However, there are other accessories, including a Night Sight camera and walkie-talkie. While we haven't been able to test these, the camera is apparently quite disappointing when compared to the night modes on the Pixel 3 and Galaxy S10, while the Walkie-Talkie is perhaps reserved for those outdoor types who regularly move out of the range of mobile networks. A big downer is that using any of these modules turns off elements like the internal compass and GPS on the phone.

Now, we've seen phones pull the module trick before. LG tried it with the G5, and more recently Motorola has made it part of its Moto range. On paper, expanding the functionality of a handset with optional modules makes sense; it gives the consumer more choice and enables the handset maker to rake in a little more cash.

In the case of the S90, you can order a version which comes with three modules (battery, camera, walkie-talkie and gaming interface), but the base unit just comes with the battery module – which is arguably the most useful of the bunch, as it allows you to quickly and easily augment the stamina of the handset. Sure, it looks massive, but once the battery is topped up you can remove the module and go back to normal (which is still massive, admittedly).

The S90 is built to survive, and has an IP69K water and dust resistance rating, meaning it can survive submerged for up to two weeks – ideal if you accidentally drop your phone in a lake, we guess.

The phone's 6.18-inch IPS LCD panel has a resolution of 2,246 x 1,080 pixels, and is bright and colourful. It certainly 'pops' more than we were expecting, although the glossy coating does make it hard to see when used outdoors, in bright sunlight.

Doogee S90 Review: Software

Most Chinese phones run a stock version of Android, but the S90 bucks the trend by including a heavily modified version of Android 8.1, which boasts a 'chrome' system design which looks a bit dull (you can always install a custom launcher to overcome this, of course). There's no app drawer, either.

The Night Vision camera add-on has its own unique app (which won't open if you don't have the module installed, naturally) but Doogee has included other unique applications, including a special 'Game Mode' app, Translator, Pedometer and 'Toolbag' which includes a compass, measuring tool, protractor and other useful functions.

Oddly, 'Start' is the default web browser and not Chrome – something we've not seen on an Android phone in what feels like forever – but thankfully, the Doogee also includes a full suite of Google apps. There's not a great deal to report on as far as other software goes; while it's a shame that Android 9.0 isn't supported, the S90 is at least running the February 2019 security patch.

Doogee S90 Review: Performance

We came away quite surprised at how fast the S90's Mediatek Helio P60 processor was; this is a mid-range chipset which is aimed at the lower end of the market, but during daily use, the S90 felt fast and responsive, and even intense 3D games like Mortal Kombat ran without a hitch. There's 6GB of RAM thrown in for good measure, and the Mali-G72 GPU handles all of the graphics gubbins.

On paper, this isn't the most awe-inspiring spec sheet in the world, but we never found the S90 to be wanting in terms of power. Sure, it's not likely to trouble the heavyweights of the smartphone world when it comes to pushing pixels, but the Helio P60 is clearly a dependable piece of silicon, and we can't imagine many people will be displeased with the level of performance afforded here.

Doogee S90 Review: Camera & Battery Life

The Doogee has a 16-megapixel main rear camera which is assisted by a secondary snapper (used for Boken-style effects), while around the front there's an 8-megapixel selfie snapper.

On the positive side, the 16-megapixel main camera is capable of picking up loads of detail, and, in bright sunlight, gives a lovely, crisp image. On the downside, it has a tendency to overexpose the image, with blue skies coming out as white. Check out the samples below and look at the bright colours – they're almost radioactive in their luminance.

With a massive 5000mAh battery inside, the S90 has serious staying power, but combine it with the battery module and you have a phone that will last you for at least two days, if not longer. Of course, it also turns it into a tank, but that's the price you pay for not having to worry about charging your phone every single day, we guess.

Doogee S90 Review: Verdict

Super-tough phones like the S90 aren't for everyone, and it would be foolish to argue otherwise. This is a massive device with a design that, while not ugly, certainly is a world away from the sleek lines of the Galaxy S10 or iPhone XS. It's a handset built to withstand extreme punishment, and if you happen to work in a hazardous environment, then it's clearly one of the best choices available. The module idea is interesting too, although we're not sure the concept is going to go very far based on the add-ons released by Doogee so far; the 5000mAh battery pack is by far and away the most useful, even if it does massively expand the size of the already-huge handset. All in all, the S90 offers decent power, almost unbreakable build quality and exceptional stamina, although these positives are balanced out slightly by an average camera.