Mobile Technology

The Doogee S88 Pro is a seriously tough, long-lasting smartphone

The Doogee S88 Pro is a seriously tough, long-lasting smartphone
The Doogee S88 Pro can handle water, sand and long drops
The Doogee S88 Pro can handle water, sand and long drops
View 5 Images
The Doogee S88 Pro can handle water, sand and long drops
1/5
The Doogee S88 Pro can handle water, sand and long drops
Army green (shown here), black and fire orange are the color choices
2/5
Army green (shown here), black and fire orange are the color choices
Around the back is a triple-lens rear camera and two customizable LED lights
3/5
Around the back is a triple-lens rear camera and two customizable LED lights
If you need a rugged phone with a long-lasting battery, consider the Doogee S88 Pro
4/5
If you need a rugged phone with a long-lasting battery, consider the Doogee S88 Pro
The phone comes with a 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen and Android 10 on board
5/5
The phone comes with a 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen and Android 10 on board
View gallery - 5 images

Not everyone wants a super-thin form factor and a curved design for their next smartphone – and if you'd rather have a handset that's built like a tank and has one of the biggest batteries on the market, then the Doogee S88 Pro might just be for you.

The latest phone from the Chinese manufacturer comes packing a huge 10,000-mAh battery (the iPhone 11 has a 3,110-mAh battery, by comparison), which Doogee says is good enough to go seven or eight days between charges. Most phone makers like to exaggerate battery life measurements, but that's an impressive claim.

Apparently the phone can last for 200 hours between charges when it's on standby, and will manage 19 hours of 3D gaming, 18 hours of video watching, and 27 hours of music listening. If we get chance to review the Doogee S88 Pro, we'll be sure to put those numbers to the test. The phone can wirelessly reverse charge other devices too.

What will help that battery life is that the Doogee S88 Pro has a relatively low-performance processor and a relatively low-resolution 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen – the mid-range Helio P70 is the processor and the screen resolution is 1,080 x 2,340 pixels. Rounding out the specs are 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded with a memory card if needed.

The rear camera looks decent as well, at least on paper: it's a triple-lens 21 MP + 8 MP + 8 MP affair, with an ultrawide option and built-in HDR support for keeping both light and dark areas of a picture in view. There's a 16 MP selfie camera on the front, which is housed in a teardrop notch that very slightly cuts into the screen.

The phone comes with a 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen and Android 10 on board
The phone comes with a 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen and Android 10 on board

If you're getting the Doogee S88 Pro though, it's going to be for the design and protection. Full IP68 waterproofing and dustproofing is here of course – it's able to survive two hours submerged in liquid at a depth of 1.5 meters (that's nearly 5 feet). The phone is also able to keep out sand particles a mere 1 mm (0.04 in) in size.

The phone will withstand a 2-meter (6.6-ft) drop on to a smooth surface, and a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) drop on to a hard surface. It meets the standard MIL-STD-810G military certification for the toughness of devices, and can deal with extremes of pressure and temperature as well.

Based on the previous phones we've seen from Doogee, we'd expect the S88 Pro to largely work as advertised – it's a phone for the adventurers and for the great outdoors, if robustness and battery life matters more to you than anything else – it's not a phone that you need to worry about leaving outside overnight.

On top of all that, the phone has some very cool-looking LED notification lights on the back, which you can customize in various ways, and comes running the latest Android 10 software. Black, army green, and fire orange are your color choices.

If you're convinced, you can pick up the Doogee S88 Pro for a special introductory price of US$199.99 if you pre-order before June 21, at which point the price goes up to a still-very-reasonable $249.99.

Product page: Doogee S88 Pro

View gallery - 5 images
1 comment
1 comment
Brodizzel
David, serious question, how comfortable are you with the security of this phone? I've read a few things from different sources, nothing recent, about malware from this manufacturer. I'm really interested in this phone but also a little reluctant. Thanks.