The rugged smartphones from China's Doogee generally have a few things in common. They can survive pretty much anything you can throw at them. They have generous batteries. And they often sit at the budget end of the mobile marketplace. The company's S89 Pro is no exception, rocking military-grade protection, an enormous battery and a wallet-friendly ticket price.
Where smartphone users may have to wrap their handsets in bulky protective cases before taking them out into the big bad world, Doogee's models are already tough cookies out of the box.
The S89 Pro's 6.3-inch FHD+ (1,080 x 2,340) LCD display at 19:9 aspect is topped by scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, for example. And the handset boasts IP68 and IP69K protection against water/dust ingress. Plus, it's certified to MIL-STD-810H rugged standards – which means it can be completely submerged in the wet stuff for at least 30 minutes or withstand a pressure spray, can brush off being dropped from 1.5 m (5 ft) onto concrete, and will continue to operate in extreme weather or high altitudes.
The mobile chipset powering the phone is MediaTek's Helio P90 mid-range system-on-chip, with an octa-core processor, integrated graphics and support for 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The rugged smartphone comes with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage (expandable to 512 GB via microSD), and benefits from a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for one-handed unlock.
The real headline grabber here though is the absolutely monstrous 12,000-mAh battery that's reported good for "several days" of use before users need to seek out a wall outlet. Plus the handset ships with a 65-W charger, which is becoming less common in today's smartphone space.
There's a triple camera array around back that's housed in a dinky robot-shaped bump with customizable RGB "eyes" for visual notifications of incoming messages or calls. Mobile photographers can make use of a 64-megapixel F1.8 main camera, a 20-MP F1.8 nightvision module based on Sony's IMX350 image sensor, and an 8-MP F2.2 wide that can be used for macro photography.
The AI camera setup can automatically optimize settings for up to 13 different modes, including portrait shots, landscape scenes, night views and pet photos. And there's a 16-MP hole-punch AI selfiecam to the front as well.
The dual-SIM phone runs Android 12 (though there's no word on future OS upgrades or security patches), and launches for US$269 until July 29, when the price gets bumped to $319.
Source: Doogee
