DOOGEE MIX review: An affordable nearly bezel-less phone

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TA-ratings-83Smartphones keep evolving year after year and it seems bezel-less is the latest craze. The big players like Samsung and Apple are jumping on board but so are smaller companies, like DOOGEE. The DOOGEE MIX is a nearly bezel-less smartphone that’s similar to the Xiaomi Mi MIX. Most of the U.S. probably has never heard of DOOGEE but our overseas readers probably have. That being said, the DOOGEE MIX will work in the U.S. but probably won’t work on LTE. This review is most likely going to apply to our overseas readers so let’s jump into it. Read on for the full review of the DOOGEE MIX.

Specifications

The DOOGEE MIX has the following features and specifications:

  • 5.5″ Super AMOLED 720p display
  • Bezel-less design
  • Helio P25 CPU 2.5GHz
  • Mali-T880 GPU 900MHz
  • Dual cameras in rear 16MP/8MP
  • 5MP front camera
  • 4 or 6GB of RAM
  • 64GB of internal storage with expansion
  • 3380mAh battery
  • Android 7.0
  • Length: 144mm
  • Width: 76.2mm

What’s In The Box

  • DOOGEE MIX
  • Power adapter (not U.S.)
  • USB cable
  • Screen protector
  • Case
  • SIM eject tool
  • Manuals and Warranties
DOOGEE MIX
Nearly bezel-less

Design

The first thing that strikes you about the design is the near lack of bezels along the top, left, and right. The chin of the device still has a significant portion of the bezel and houses the fingerprint scanner and front facing camera. The interesting thing is, unlike the famous Xiaomi Mi MIX, the DOOGEE MIX leaves enough bezel at the top to fit the earpiece in. If you’re familiar with the Mi MIX you know that it lacks an earpiece and uses bone conduction for sound.

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Along the left side are the power and volume buttons which offer nice tactile feedback and are placed nicely. The bottom of the phone is where you’ll find the microUSB port for charging as well as the speakers. I do wish they would have used USB Type-C as this is becoming a standard among smartphones. Around the back, you have the dual cameras which do produce a bit of a hump. The LED flash is right next to the cameras.

DOOGEE MIX
Same size screen as an iPhone but smaller footprint.

I will give DOOGEE a ton of credit for the materials used here, they all feel very premium. The sides of the phone are aluminum and sort of brushed and matte in appearance. Our review unit came in this bright blue color that will certainly attract attention. The back of the phone looks like glass but I suspect it’s a high-quality plastic. I may be wrong either way, it looks super nice but does attract a load of fingerprints.

Overall the design is attractive. The extremely small bezels allow for a 5.5″ display to be plopped into this chassis. The DOOGEE MIX is actually smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus with the same size screen which is impressive.

Display

This budget minded smartphone has a budget minded 720p display which is great for less battery consumption but I would have liked to see a 1080p panel. Still, the included Super AMOLED 720p display isn’t horrible, it does look pretty good for what it is. Colors are still nice and vibrant and blacks and whites look decent. Most users shouldn’t notice too much of a difference from 720p to 1080p but it would have been nice to have that upgrade. Viewing angles in bright sunlight are an issue, while even high end displays suffer in the sun, this one struggles badly.

DOOGEE MIX
The display doesn’t do too well in sunlight.

Software

Android 7.0 is running on the DOOGEE MIX and that’s pretty fantastic. Android Nougat runs like a champ and is one of the best versions of Android Google has produced. DOOGEE runs their own custom skin over Android which I didn’t care for at all. That was easily fixed by downloading Action Launcher 3 and some icon packs. Android runs great here, you may or may not like the DOOGEE skin that’s entirely personal preference. Overall it’s a great experience.

Performance

Here in the States, we’re all about the Snapdragon performance so it’s always interesting to use an alternative. The Helio P25 paired with the Mali-T880 hold their own and offer up surprisingly good performance. I don’t get in the habit of running benchmarks as I don’t think they’re very helpful. Instead, I use the device as I would my daily driver, which is an iPhone 7 Plus.

I found that the DOOGEE MIX did a great job of holding up to everyday tasks like browser, email, YouTube, light game play, and app switching. There were a few times I might have gotten a stuttering or forced closed app but it wasn’t often. More intense games do put the CPU and GPU to the test and you might find a few dropped frames.

DOOGEE MIX
The fingerprint sensor was frustrating.

Scrolling through apps and web pages was fairly smooth. Once in awhile things would get janky or freeze up for a split second but nothing that isn’t tolerable. I don’t expect this phone to work as well as a flagship Samsung or iPhone but it performed day to day tasks as well as you could ask a budget smartphone to perform them.

I did find that the fingerprint reader was a bit flaky and didn’t work as often as I think it should. Even for a budget phone, the inaccuracy of the reader was annoying. Overall this phone is a decent performer considering its price but that fingerprint reader issue should be fixed.

Speakers/Sound

The speakers on the DOOGEE MIX are decent. Not stellar, but they will get you through podcasts, YouTube watching and such. I would recommend headphones for anything that you want good sound from.

DOOGEE MIX
Camera performance was just OK.

Camera

The dual camera setup in the back is supposed to function much like the Huawei or iPhone dual cameras but we are talking a budget phone here. The photos are a little on the dark side with colors not quite popping. Low light performance is also not very great and the front facing camera is slightly grainy and placed on the chin meaning you have to turn the phone over to take your picture. There are other phones in this price range that do a far better job with photos but these are acceptable.

Reception/Call Quality

I couldn’t test LTE on this phone as it doesn’t work on T-Mobile LTE bands. 4G and 3G worked and call quality was great, making calls and sending texts worked perfectly fine. Reception is also pretty good but I do wish these DOOGEE phones would work on U.S. LTE bands.

DOOGEE MIX
Volume rocker and power.

Battery Life

The big 3,380 mAh battery will get you through the day and then some depending on what you’re doing. A few times I was able to go a few days without charging. Throw in some gaming, music, and various other things and the battery will go down. Pretty solid battery life here.

Price/Value

There are a variety of prices online for the DOOGEE MIX and the lowest was $179.99USD at AliExpress. For that price, it’s a pretty solid deal for users overseas who can take advantage of the bands this phone uses. For U.S. users, if you plan to use this as a Wi-Fi only device, that could work but not as a daily driver phone.

Wrap Up

DOOGEE made a decent low budget bezel-less phone for the overseas market here. It should appeal to a lot of people but it does have some pitfalls.

*We were sent a sample of the DOOGEE MIX for the purposes of this review.
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