With a price under $200, the Doogee Mix gets you an almost bezel-less AMOLED screen, 4K video recording, and a dual camera setup, all in a pocketable form factor.
Design
It might not use fancy ceramics, but Doogee’s mix of metal, glass, and plastic doesn’t feel cheap. A glossy fingerprint magnet, sure, but not cheap.
The first thing that strikes you about the design is the near lack of bezels along the top. 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.
The back of the phone is really clean and looks quite premium, thanks to the large piece of Gorilla Glass 5 glass covering it. You would have to use jeweler's gloves if you ever want to see it smudge-free though.
I have to say Doogee has done a pretty impressive job of hiding the four plastic antenna inserts along the top and bottom edges. The build quality is actually pretty impressive.
Screen
I'm declaring this "an almost bezel-less phone" because the 5.5-inch panel of the Doogee Mix is indeed a few millimeters shy of touching the edges. On the sides, there are about 2mm of colored bezel, with a slight 2.5D effect on the glass, followed by another two or so of black internal bezels around the panel itself.
Because of the Super AMOLED panel, these are hardly visible when displaying darker images and don't really look off-putting at all.
The AMOLED panel pumps out colorful hues, with exceptional contrast for its price. Viewing angles are pretty good, and brightness is decent, in the right light - it's not bright enough to see clearly outdoors on even overcast days, but is fine for just about everything else.
Battery
The big 3,380 mAh battery will get you through the day and then some depending on what you’re doing. The most it lasted for me was 2 full days without a charge. Sadly, it doesn't really charge quickly, as it can only take 2A/5V. Even so, you can expect a full charging to take around two hours, which is not that bad.
Camera
With a 16MP RGB camera paired with an 8MP monochrome sensor, the Mix should be capable of decent photos - which is why it’s a shame the camera app feels a bit hokey. Icons are pixelated, the text is too small, and useful settings are buried away in the menus.
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.
When it comes to video, the Doogee Mix is technically capable of recording videos with a resolution up to 4K@30fps - a truly impressive feat at this price point. However, expect some constant and very annoying stutters in your videos, as seen in the sample below.
Verdict
There are problems with it, sure. The Doogee Mix is disappointing and utterly unreliable as a digital camera, even for casual use, and the fingerprint reader was a bit flaky and didn’t work as often as I think it should.
No, it’s not going to give the Galaxy S8 a run for its money. It's a $200 smartphone, so keep your expectations realistic and the Mix will pleasantly surprise you.
