Doogee S200 assessment: A feature-rich rugged flagship

As a follow-up to its profitable S100 collection, the Doogee S200 has improved on its predecessor in virtually each conceivable manner. It features a bigger display screen, a extra highly effective SoC, improved digital camera sensors, and helps reverse charging. This telephone additionally helps 5G connectivity for these with that service, whereas the S100 and S100 Professional solely supply 4G. All the brand new elements are shoehorned into an aircraft-grade aluminum chassis rated for IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810H, permitting the S200 to outlive being dropped even right into a puddle.

For these contemplating a seaside or journey vacation, the S200 combines rugged survivability and performance with a value that will not break the financial institution.

Worth and availability

Wonderful value for a full-featured design

The most affordable place to purchase the S200 is by way of AliExpress, the place the 12GB+256GB mannequin might be discovered for a few cents greater than $200 for the silver and grey choices. For a further $37, a 512GB storage mannequin can be out there, and people fashions are available black, yellow, and inexperienced.

The fee on Amazon is almost double that of AliExpress, at $340 after a $90 coupon. However you’ll get the telephone a lot faster, and it is simpler to return when you have a problem.

As a Chinese language-made world telephone design, it was not particularly made for the American market. Due to this fact, it does not help all of the bands that American cellular service suppliers use, particularly 5G bands. It really works with most on 4G, however solely on T-Cellular, AT&T, Verizon, and Lycamobile are connections to 5G providers potential, and solely on restricted bands.

What’s good in regards to the Doogee S200?

A robust all-rounder

It is simple however tedious to name out particular options on the S200 in a whack-a-mole trend and say in the event that they make this a great or dangerous design. As with most Doogee {hardware} I’ve seen, it is a competently engineered machine that largely does what the makers declare. Being a big telephone with a metallic chassis makes it ultimate for these with bigger arms and pockets to hold it, though in comparison with many rugged designs, at 368g, it is not cumbersome.

Doogee quotes IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810H as robustness credentials, which interprets into having the ability to face up to being dropped from 6ft, submerged for as much as half-hour in practically 5ft of water, or blasted with jets of scorching water. Nevertheless, its mud and waterproofing will solely work in case you correctly safe the rubber plug over the USB-C port.

Like many

present Android designs
, Doogee included a user-customizable key to launch apps, configure the {hardware}, or seize the display screen. The S200 presents a strong platform however a largely vanilla Android set up that hasn’t ditched Google apps for inferior options. It has some particular features, like a Sport Mode that stops you from being interrupted by incoming calls, an Straightforward Launcher, an FM Radio, and a toolbag suite. The purpose appears to be to remain on the pure Android path for many who like straightforward transitions from related telephones.

The S200’s gaming efficiency is healthier than that of most rugged telephones, but it surely doesn’t obtain the acute speeds and element we have seen on the most recent flagship Samsung S24 and Google Pixel 9 gadgets. Operating a demanding title like Genshin Impression requires utilizing the bottom high quality settings to attain 30fps, but it surely’s playable. A title like Pokémon Go can simply run, and something much less demanding is fluid on the 120Hz refresh 6.72-inch display screen.

Nevertheless, the display screen has a shiny end, which might be a problem for gaming on the seaside with out an anti-reflection display screen protector. A characteristic not anticipated on a funds machine is an OLED show, and sadly, the one on right here is relegated to being on the again, not the entrance. Designed to appear like a SmartWatch, it was embedded into the S200, displaying a large number of clock faces and brief messages or the names of music tracks.

The rear show may look like a gimmick, however inserting the telephone face down and seeing the time is pleasant. Battery life is sweet with a 10100mAh battery and the flexibility to reverse cost to a different telephone, must you need to use it as an influence financial institution.

What’s dangerous in regards to the Doogee S200?

Some overselling by Doogee

Have you ever ever interviewed somebody who’s clearly appropriate for the job however delivers an implausible evaluation of their capabilities? The Doogee S200 is that individual, because it takes good options and over-emphasizes them.

A sticker on the field states 256GB within the largest font, 32GB in a smaller one, after which, in microscopically small letters, 12GB+20GB RAM.

The S200 has 12GB of RAM, and in comparison with many telephones, that is loads. The 12GB+20GB deal is when some 256GB of storage is mapped into the RAM handle house to make Android assume it has extra capability to put in purposes. This trick works, to a level, but it surely does not give the S200 a capability of 32GB of RAM, being wholly lifelike.

One other distraction is the curious brand on the telephone’s rear inside an edged field on the decrease again. Initially, I interpreted this as wi-fi charging, with the field revealing the place to put the telephone to cost. I am undecided if this was the unique intention of Doogee engineers, however the S200 does not have wi-fi charging, and this brand and space seem to designate nothing.

Individuals will both love or hate this telephone’s styling. I might hoped that we would moved past the period when rugged telephones had been made to appear like navy devices or science fiction cosplay, however the S200 nonetheless has a muted vibe of the latter. Whereas it is not terrible, it lacks the class of the Samsung and Motorola rugged designs.

The cameras are a blended bag, with the 100MP essential sensor, which may take distinctive pictures in most lighting circumstances and seize 4K video. Nevertheless, it has no guide adjustment for body charges aside from a gradual movement choice that drops the decision to 720p to attain 120fps. The issue is that the opposite two sensors are solely for evening imaginative and prescient and macro pictures, leaving the 100MP digital camera to do all of the heavy lifting. If it had optical stabilization and never solely digital, the first digital camera may need labored higher on this context.

One curiosity is that Doogee promotes the S200 as having an underwater digital camera mode and launching this operate may even be sure to the customized button. However the digital camera by no means seems, and when you have the usual digital camera software open, it complains that the underwater digital camera cannot work whereas operating. This characteristic may want an replace to repair, although utilizing this telephone to take underwater pictures when it could actually’t descend greater than 5ft underwater appears excessively dangerous.

I additionally want to say that Doogee, like many Chinese language telephone manufacturers, presents restricted upgrades over the perceived lifetime of its gadgets. Usually, count on the S200 to see some safety updates, however I do not assume this telephone will ever get Android 15. One final minor level is that it does not have a headphone jack, and it does not include a USB-C to headphone adapter.

Must you purchase it?

Many nice options

Contemplating the worth, it feels uncharitable to say that it lacks wi-fi charging and solely comes with 12GB of RAM. These limitations apart, the efficiency of the S200 goes manner past what

any rugged telephone
provided solely a few years in the past. The similarities between this design and the far more costly Doogee DK10 are putting. The 100MP main digital camera sensor is not the perfect out there, however it could actually nonetheless take cheap pictures throughout a variety of lighting circumstances, together with evening, and has a wide variety of capturing modes.

Except you need top-quality captures, the S200 may very well be the proper rugged telephone to tackle vacation or onto a building web site. With 5G comms, twin Nano SIMs, and abuse-resistant building that may take the knocks and maintain working, there are lots of eventualities the place this could be a better option than endangering an costly premium machine. The usefulness of the rear OLED show is tempered by it shifting the cameras away from the centerline, however possibly with long-term use, even that may develop on me. General, the Doogee S200 ticks loads of containers, most likely greater than it is best to fairly count on at this value.