A great display for just $160

I didn’t have high hopes for the Doogee T20 when I started using it. On startup, you’re greeted with a splash screen straight out of The Fast and the Furious, which takes a shade under a decade to load. However, I was pleasantly surprised once I spent more time with it and took stock of everything it could do for $160.

Make no mistake; it’s not a pain-free experience, and the T20’s versatility comes with some glaring deficiencies. But if you’re looking for a flexible Android table and to spend less than $200, the Doogee T20 might be worth a look.

Price and availability

The Doogee T20 is available for $160 through Amazon. Thankfully, Doogee includes a few extras for your money. In addition to the tablet, you receive a stylus in the box and a cover case to protect your tablet on the go. A magnetic connector on the bottom of the T20 allows a portable keyboard to be attached, but unlike the stylus, the keyboard will cost extra.

What’s good about the Doogee T20?

All about that display

When you run down the T20’s spec sheet, the first thing that jumps out is the display. For $160, you get a 10.4-inch 2K fully laminated LCD panel, and while all 2K panels aren’t created equal, the T20 features a decent one. It’s not the brightest display in the world, but it’s reasonably color-accurate, and artists will appreciate the laminated display when using the stylus for drawing and sketching. It’s great for binge-watching content and the main reason you’d consider buying a T20.

In addition to the impressive display, the T20 sports a solid metal construction and is quite thin at 7.9mm. It feels good in the hand and appears more premium than its price tag suggests. I like that Doogee included the stylus in the box.

It gives people added utility and makes the T20 more of a one-stop shop for users looking for a notetaking or drawing tablet. It’s not the millisecond response rate you get from a high-end Samsung tablet, but the stylus is responsive and easy to use.

I can’t blame you if you’ve never heard of the Unisoc T616 chipset, but it’s been in a few budget devices I’ve reviewed. It’s not blazing, but it gets the job done, and I got decent frames in games like PUB G on high settings. If you’re reasonable with your expectations, the T20 performs admirably, especially with 8GB of RAM. Slowdowns will happen, and you’ll be punished if you push your luck with more intensive Android apps. However, for a budget tablet, I’ve seen much worse.

Doogee fitted the T20 with an 8,300mAh battery, and the company claims it can provide up to 5.5 hours of video streaming and 10 hours of music playback, which roughly held up in testing. I could use the T20 all day for various tasks, with plenty left over in the evenings for watching content. When it’s time to recharge, the T20 is capable of 18W charging through its USB-C port.

I found it odd that Doogee didn’t include a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it did add a MicroSD card slot for expandable storage up to 1TB, complimenting the stock 256GB of memory. It’s enough storage to download your favorite shows and movies for airplane trips, and I always love it when tablet manufacturers give us the option to add memory. Generally, this tablet will give you more versatility than you would with an Amazon Fire 10 HD and will cost less.

What’s bad about the Doogee T20?

Software support is lacking

You’ll notice I’m giving the T20 a 7 out of 10 score for my review, and a good chunk of the points deducted are because of software. It ships running Android 12 out of the box, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for Android 13 or 14 anytime soon. Moreover, you’ll be lucky to get a few security updates during the T20’s lifespan.

It’s unfortunate, and while no one is expecting a smaller manufacturer like Doogee to offer four or five years of support, I don’t think a modest commitment to two or three years is out of the question. It would give buyers peace of mind and help make recommending the T20 much easier.

The T20’s software is not all bad, as Doogee’s flavor of Android is relatively stock. I was also pleased not to see any bloatware on the T20, something that plagued budget devices of yesteryear. All told, the software experience is clean, but the lack of support hurts the T20, even at $160.

In addition, the T20’s quad-speakers fall short, with Doogee boasting Hi-Res Audio, but the results are lackluster. The speakers are reasonably loud, but the sound is hollow, almost tinny. It doesn’t ruin the experience but it certainly doesn’t add to it. I got excited when I saw quad-speakers but failed to remember the price point — keep the sound down, and they’ll be passable. You can always pair your favorite Bluetooth headset for a much better experience.

I appreciate that the T20 has 4G support; pop in your favorite (by favorite, I mean T-Mobile in the US) SIM card, and you’ll have connectivity on the go. However, its Wi-Fi modem leaves much to be desired. For some reason, even on a 5GHz network, I still encountered more buffering than I would like. 1080p YouTube videos occasionally struggled to load, and while it wasn’t a showstopper, I hoped for better performance.

I’m not going to judge cameras on a tablet too harshly, but the T20 isn’t exactly a device you rely on for photography. Images are decent, and even the digital zoom wasn’t terrible, but it’s not a selling point of the Doogee tablet.

Should you buy it?

I recommend the Doogee T20 for savvy buyers who have their eyes open. If you can appreciate the T20 for what it is, you’re getting excellent value at $160. However, if you expect the T20 to provide the same experience and support as an Amazon Fire HD, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. To earn full-throated recommendations, Doogee must consider minimal software support for products like the T20.

Until then, the Doogee T20 is reserved for enthusiasts who love the idea of a 2K display at this price point and artists who can take advantage of the fully laminated display and stylus for less than the competition. I like the T20; I’m just hung up on the shortcomings.