Doogee Mix 2 Review - A Beautiful Machine
Few weeks back, we unboxed the Doogee Mix 2. Today, we are ready to show you its capabilities in this full review. Read on!
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| Doogee Mix 2 review! |
For the review part 1: Doogee Mix 2 Unboxing and First Impressions
Display Quality
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| Big screen! |
Doogee Mix 2's display is big and beautiful. It highlights a 5.99-inch IPS In-Cell screen with very sleek looking slim top, bottom, and side bezels.
Big near bezel-less screen!
The Mix 2 also goes with an FHD+ 2160 x 1080 resolution which is sharper at 403 pixels per inch than the usual HD+ screens from other similarly priced phones.
Colors are quite nice too. It is well balanced and close to natural looking with decent punch. Blacks and contrasts aren't that great though. It doesn't have extra saturation too since it isn't an AMOLED screen.
Sunlight legibility is a bit on an issue too. The screen is quite bright, but there are glares under direct sunlight hit.
Fortunately, it has 10 points of touch which makes multi-gesture controls and gaming easier.
Audio Quality
Unfortunately, the single loudspeaker below is a bit tinny sounding. It's far from full sounding and it is lacking in details versus the other speakers on other phones we tested at this price point. It has audible distortion even at around 80 percent of the volume only. Don't even attempt to crank it all the way up to 100 percent too.
Headphone audio output is better. It is balanced in sound and has decent details. Driving power is quite strong too. Just make sure that It isn't just HiFi grade yet and won't make your big headphone shine, but it is decent.
For calls, quality is acceptable. Voice is clear most of time. Audio from video recordings are surprisingly good.
Battery Life
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| Strong battery performance |
The Mix 2 boasts a big 4,060mAh battery capacity. In our test, it clocked 11 hours and 40 minutes. That's 1 hour more than the usual 10 hours from other handsets with 4,000+mAh of battery.
Actual usage is great as well. It can usually last for a day (heavy usage) or a day and a half (normal usage) on a single charge.
It also has several battery saving modes that you can try maximize your phone usage.
Charging time is considered as fast enough for a phone with over 4000mAh battery. It only took us 2 hours to full charge the Mix 2 from zero percent.
At the back, Doogee claimed that the Mix 2 is equipped with a 16MP + 13MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF and dual tone LED flash at the back. On paper, that's a clear step-up versus the Doogee Mix last year.
It has several modes to choose from like HDR, face beauty, blur, monochrome, and 9 other filters to choose from. It also has a pro mode, but that "pro mode" is very limited.
Quality-wise, shooting speed is consistently fast. Focus speed is definitely quicker than the old Mix as well. Close-up shots are possible in well-lit conditions.
In daylight, it has sufficient details and acceptable colors. HDR is a bit too bright and has grain. It also suffering from loss of details in indoor shots. Dynamic range is far from wide too. The bokeh mode is artificial and the black and white mode is just a filter. The "secondary 13MP camera" has no real function.
Lowlight photos are surprisingly washed out despite having a "bright, fast, and wide" f/1.8 aperture lens. Fortunately, it goes with a flash that could compensate for the poor lowlight camera performance of this handset.
Don't get us wrong though, the main camera is still a clear step-up versus the Mix last year and it can shoot decent photos at times.
For selfies it goes with a real 8MP f/2.8 + 8MP f/2.2 dual selfie cameras w/ 130 degrees wide angle lens.
It has an adjustable face beauty and monochrome filter features too. The selfie screen flash is hidden in the settings though.
Taking photos using primary selfie shooter is alright. It has no AF, but its face detection is decent. It isn't that grainy, but there are times where shots could be blurry if you do not have steady hands. Colors could be violetish or at times too.
The wide-angle mode is fun to use in daylight conditions. It has a barrel distortion that mimics your action camera with wide lens.
Both the normal and wide angle mode doesn't perform well in lowlight though.
For videos, it has shoot up to 4K and 1080p 30 fps at the back. In front, both the normal and wide mode only has 720p resolution at 30 fps. The main camera is slightly more stabilized than the dual selfie shooters. But, quality at the back and on the front are still shaky due to lack of OIS.
Camera
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| Dual cam or single cam? |
At the back, Doogee claimed that the Mix 2 is equipped with a 16MP + 13MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF and dual tone LED flash at the back. On paper, that's a clear step-up versus the Doogee Mix last year.
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| Camera UI |
It has several modes to choose from like HDR, face beauty, blur, monochrome, and 9 other filters to choose from. It also has a pro mode, but that "pro mode" is very limited.
Quality-wise, shooting speed is consistently fast. Focus speed is definitely quicker than the old Mix as well. Close-up shots are possible in well-lit conditions.
In daylight, it has sufficient details and acceptable colors. HDR is a bit too bright and has grain. It also suffering from loss of details in indoor shots. Dynamic range is far from wide too. The bokeh mode is artificial and the black and white mode is just a filter. The "secondary 13MP camera" has no real function.
Lowlight photos are surprisingly washed out despite having a "bright, fast, and wide" f/1.8 aperture lens. Fortunately, it goes with a flash that could compensate for the poor lowlight camera performance of this handset.
Don't get us wrong though, the main camera is still a clear step-up versus the Mix last year and it can shoot decent photos at times.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight shot |
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| HDR |
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| Monochrome |
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| Indoor |
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| Lowlight |
For selfies it goes with a real 8MP f/2.8 + 8MP f/2.2 dual selfie cameras w/ 130 degrees wide angle lens.
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| Selfie camera UI |
It has an adjustable face beauty and monochrome filter features too. The selfie screen flash is hidden in the settings though.
Taking photos using primary selfie shooter is alright. It has no AF, but its face detection is decent. It isn't that grainy, but there are times where shots could be blurry if you do not have steady hands. Colors could be violetish or at times too.
The wide-angle mode is fun to use in daylight conditions. It has a barrel distortion that mimics your action camera with wide lens.
Both the normal and wide angle mode doesn't perform well in lowlight though.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Daylight |
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| Wide |
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| Indoor wide with Mark Marcelo of Filipino Tech Addict |
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| Indoor dim |
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| Lowlight |
For videos, it has shoot up to 4K and 1080p 30 fps at the back. In front, both the normal and wide mode only has 720p resolution at 30 fps. The main camera is slightly more stabilized than the dual selfie shooters. But, quality at the back and on the front are still shaky due to lack of OIS.
Video Samples
Performance
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| Benchmark scores |
The Doogee Mix 2 runs with a 64-bit Helio P25 octa-core processor by MediaTek clocked at 2.5GHz. It's a proven and tested mid-range grade processor with good enough speed to handle most of the tasks with ease.
Good specs for the price!
Casual to some heavy games are also possible using this phone as it is paired with Mali-T880 MP2 GPU and 6GB RAM. It also has large 64GB of expandable storage for oyur apps and files.
As a result, actual performance is mostly smooth. Crashers are rare and opening of apps is quick. Switching from an app to another is easy too. Having said that, multitasking is great.
Running games like NBA 2K18 is also possible. But, you have to tweak the settings to make it run smoothly. Our settings is mostly all high and medium on the crowd and cloth simulation off.
Thermal management is pretty decent too. Yes, it gets warm when you turn the Bluetooth, 4G, and hotspot all at the same time, but that's normal and far from alarming.
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| The clean skin |
Software-wise, the Mix 2 runs with a clean version of Android 7.1 Nougat OS. It has the usual pre-installed Google apps and there's still an app drawer. It amost have no bloats at all.
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| System Manager |
The System Manager is the only pre-installed app and that's a very helpful app. It can auto clean the junk on your device, manager the battery, freeze apps, and etc.
The fingerprint reader still works 4 out 5 times. But it isn't the fastest fingerprint scanner around. It also has a face unlock feature. But like most face unlock tech, it isn't consistent in lowlight.
The rest of the telephony experience is acceptable. Call quality is decent, WiFi works, Bluetooth is stable, and LTE signal is mostly strong. GPS is also nice for navigation in our experience. It also has a gyroscope sensor.
Pros - Impressive build and design quality, big near bezel-less screen, good specs, extra long battery life, clean OS.
Cons - Sunlight legibility, rear camera lowlight performance, slow fingerprint scanner, no dedicated 3.5 mm headphone jack slot
However, it could have been a better all-rounder if the rear camera performance is great.
The Doogee Mix 2 is available at Lazada Philippines for PHP 12,995.
Build / Design - 4
Display - 4
Audio - 3.5
Battery - 4.25
Camera - 3.75
Performance - 4.25
Average - 3.95 / 5
Verdict
The Doogee Mix 2 is a clear step-up over the first Mix last year. It now has a much better looking design (the trendy 18:9 screen and glass-like back) and the internals are upgraded overall. We also like that it now has a wide-angle selfie camera for groufies.However, it could have been a better all-rounder if the rear camera performance is great.
The Doogee Mix 2 is available at Lazada Philippines for PHP 12,995.
Build / Design - 4
Display - 4
Audio - 3.5
Battery - 4.25
Camera - 3.75
Performance - 4.25
Average - 3.95 / 5
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