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Today we have in our review a relatively fresh smartphone model from the Doogee brand, which feels quite confident in its niche and regularly releases new smartphone models. A little more than six months ago, the Doogee N30 model appeared with a nice design, Helio A25 processor, large memory, camera system, multi-slot, and Android 10 on board. Let’s see how the smartphone looks and how it copes with everyday tasks.
It will probably not be a secret that the brand belongs to budget solutions and it will not be correct to compare with top models. At the same time, it should be noted that the manufacturer has passed the stage of «childhood sores» in the form of unstable software, lack of updates, ads tightly embedded in the system, etc. Today Doogee managed to find its niche, its consumer and are not going to go the distance. The N30 model fits right into the framework of this direction — a convenient form factor, a lot of memory, a bright screen, a capacious battery, a set of modern modules for relatively little money.
Smartphone Features:
Brand/Model: DOOGEE N30
Processor: Helio A25 (4 x Cortex A53 1800 MHz + 4 x Cortex A53 1500 MHz)
Memory capacity: 4GB RAM + 128GB ROM
Screen: 19:9, IPS, 6.55″, 720×1600, 268 ppi, 16M colors
Operating System: Android 10.0
Main camera 16 MP AI Quad + front camera 8 MP Samsung
Battery/Charging: 4500 mAh (built-in), 5V 2A
Multislot: Nano-SIM1+ Nano-SIM2+ Micro-SD
Navigation: GPS, BEIDO, GLONASS, Galileo
Bluetooth: 5.0
WiFi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Communication standards:
— 2G: GSM: B2/B3/B5/B8
— 3G: WCDMA: B1/B5/B8
— 4G: FDD-TLE: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B19/B20/B28A/B28B; TDD-LTE: B38/B39/B40/B41
Sensors / indication: accelerometer, proximity, illumination, fingerprint scanner (rear), event indicator.
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Branded packaging made of thick cardboard does not abound with illustrations, on the contrary, it is decorated modestly, but with taste — holographic inscriptions about the brand, model and memory capacity shimmer in different colors depending on the viewing angle.
There is nothing on the bottom side, except for the IMEI sticker, and we immediately go to the content, which is folded into three tiers — on top there are boxes with documentation, a smartphone, a tray with a cable and a charger. For a long time, many manufacturers do not put headphones in the kit — everyone selects for themselves.
In the box we find a warranty card, a postcard, instructions (including in Russian), a clip to open the card tray and a silicone case.
For the case, you need to say a special thank you, as you do not have to waste time looking for a third-party manufacturer. The cover here is not in vain transparent and it is unlikely that you will want to pick up another one, because otherwise the beauty of the phone case will not be visible, but more on that later.
At the corners of the case, protrusions are formed to protect the most vulnerable places of the gadget’s body. The overall quality of the cover is very good, everything is done neatly and there is no foreign smell at all.
On the back side there is a large window for the camera block, and there are four of them in the smartphone, and a window with rounded edges for the fingerprint sensor.
The specifications of the gadget mention 10W fast charging. We will consider this “translation complexity”, because neither the gadget nor the bundled power adapter support any fast charging protocols. We are talking about the usual voltage level of 5 Volts and a current of 2 Amperes, for which the cable and Type-C port in the phone are not a tribute to fashion, but are quite justified.
Turning to the phone itself, you can pay attention to the transport case, which not only protects the gadget from scuffs, but also informs the user about what and where the smartphone is located. This is of course a trifle, but it still gives the first information.
Although the N30 model is a budget one, it is still sustained in the modern overall trend with a screen ratio of 19:9. The overall dimensions of the gadget are 167 * 77.4 * 8.9 mm and outwardly it looks narrow and slightly elongated, but it lies comfortably in the hand. The screen is additionally covered with a film and, having removed it, we see only a dark front panel without mentioning the manufacturer and marking the on-screen buttons. In general, the appearance does not make a repulsive impression, the edges are rounded, and the screen is protected by another film, although it pretty much collects fingerprints. Doogee N30 received a 6.55-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 720 × 1600 pixels with a density of 268 ppi. The last two parameters, frankly, are not high, but we still consider not the top, the phone is for normal, not demanding use. In this case, the screen occupies 93% of the surface of the front panel.
The main feature of the smartphone is in the back of the case. And this is true — it shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow at certain angles with the main turquoise color. Officially, it is called Elegant Green and looks very impressive. The name of the manufacturer is indicated in the lower left corner, the camera unit with four cameras and a flash LED is located in the upper left corner, and a fingerprint sensor is located slightly to the right and below.
In total, the N30 model has four body design options — white with a pearly sheen, our turquoise, black and, literally, dreamy blue! All colors, including black, are not simple, they all shimmer and bring their own zest.
Now let’s look at the buttons, speaker grilles and other mandatory attributes. Let’s start with the card tray. It is located at the top on the left side of the phone, and it is full-fledged here — for two SIMs and an SD memory card. If anyone is not enough built-in 128 GB of ROM, they can add another 256 GB. I consider such a move with a tray convenient for the user, without any either-or.
Another good news is that the manufacturer has left the usual 3.5 headphone jack on top and the adherents of wired sound are not deprived.
Let’s look at the gadget «in the eyes» — in the corner they sheltered the peephole of the front camera, without any eyebrows and a narrow slot of the conversational speaker. However, that’s not all — looking ahead, I’ll say that there is an event indicator, and this is rare in the budget segment and, depending on the situation, it notifies the user with a white, blue, red and green glow.
On the bottom edge is a Type-C port, a microphone grill and a mono speaker. Yes, there is only one here, but we remember that the model is basic and the second row of holes is a design element.
At the top right are separate volume buttons and just below the on / off button. Many are probably used to a solid volume rocker, but individual buttons do not cause discomfort, after a couple of days you get used to it and no longer notice their isolation.
Let’s take a closer look at the block of the main cameras. There are four of them and you can easily notice the inscription AI Quad Camera, which implies the use of algorithms to improve the quality of images. Like it or not, we’ll see later, but for now let’s pay attention to each camera separately and to the fact that the camera unit rises slightly above the smartphone body.
There is an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera at the top, a 16-megapixel main camera in the middle of the row, and a 2-megapixel macro camera at the bottom. On the side with the same resolution is a portrait camera.
Cameras protruding above the body can cause criticism, but the situation changes if you put on a complete cover — the block turns out to be flush with it.
In general, the gadget lies comfortably even in a small palm, its apparent elongation does not interfere with reaching most of the screen with your thumb, and thanks to the rounded edges of the cover around the fingerprint sensor, the finger accurately finds the sensor.
A few more smartphone shots.
Turning on the N30 is accompanied by a splash screen, and then the device prompts you to select the interface language, which can not be called a convenient solution — the user does not need to wander through the settings in an incomprehensible language after loading. The selection window appears after loading automatically.
The following are the procedures for setting the digital screen unlock code, setting up the fingerprint unlock, and selecting the navigation system. While scanning a fingerprint, the smartphone asks from time to time to put your finger on the scanner, slightly changing its position to cover a larger area. To choose from, the user can choose either gesture navigation (swipe), or the traditional three-button and their icons will appear on the screen. But the most unexpected thing was the appearance of the wireless update check window, which is already a joyful and hopeful moment — before, manufacturers of budget phones did not indulge consumers like that, but then it immediately flew in, asking them to choose a WiFi network.
Fortunately, Doogee has stopped preinstalling a bunch of unnecessary applications, the desktops are not cluttered and there is no own search engine, they limited themselves to the usual Chrome.
In the upper right corner of the second desktop, there is an icon for the Easy Launcher application, the launch of which turns the gadget into a phone for the elderly. Here icons and buttons are presented in a simplified form in the form of large tiles for ease of orientation. Exiting the application in a simple way (or accidentally for old people) will not work, you need to go to its settings and cancel the application. At first, the browser made me a little worried, which opened the Doogee website at startup. At first I thought, is it really the ubiquitous advertising firmware again, but everything worked out — in the browser settings you just need to change the start page).
And this is what the settings of the phone look like. It can be seen that Android 10 rolled its own shell on top, but at least the translation is done correctly and it’s easy to figure it out. In the Storage tab, you should probably pay attention to the Storage Manager option, which, when activated, will delete photos added more than 90 days ago.
I didn’t really like the implementation of the Battery item — there is no information regarding the energy consumption of individual applications. Well, the “About phone” item reminds us what kind of device we have in our hands.
AIDA tells much more, informing about Bluetooth version 5, a screen refresh rate of 60 Hertz, 5 GHz WiFi support, no Root, and available sensors.
The memory test showed quite good results, and the screen unexpectedly responded to ten touches. Not very confidently passed the navigation test. In the apartment, the navigation module sees satellites, but clings for a very long time and reluctantly. On the street, the situation is improving, but still not very fast. In principle, you can use it for navigation, but you should not expect a special speed of work.
In AnTuTu Lite, the smartphone scored almost 95 thousand points, in AnTuTu Benchmark about 125.5 thousand. 3DMark only ran the Sling Shot Exstreme and Sling Shot tests. The figures for the budget segment are typical.
Of course, parrot tests can say a lot, but the average user is more often interested in something completely different — software lags, microphone operation, bluetooth, heating, speaker, the ability to play games. Therefore, a few words about such details. The work of the bluetooth of the phone did not give cause for grief, with TWS headphones the module works stably, without breaks through a couple of reinforced concrete walls. There are also no complaints about the microphone and speaker, everything is legible, no surprises. Speaking about heating, I can say that there were some models from famous manufacturers that got very hot when working as navigators and when using mobile Internet. I specifically watched the N30, they did not hear about such a problem here. Application freezes, browser tab freezes with a large number of open pages, and crashes were also not fixed. In terms of gaming, the phone will not surprise you with its performance, but it will give you the opportunity to play most non-resource-intensive games and pass the time. The battery lasts for two days with moderate use.
A few words about the application and examples of photos with smartphone cameras. As we remember, we have four cameras, including one for portrait shooting. And here there is a discrepancy with the application. The fact is that it has three shooting modes: macro, normal and wide-angle, i.e. the fourth, portrait camera, is either fake, or not used, or serves as a depth sensor, or we’ll wait until the application is finished.
Well, let’s see what we have.
macro photography. The result is so-and-so, yet 2 MP is not enough.
In other modes, the cameras, to be honest, were very surprised. This is especially true of the wide-angle mode with wild distortion at the edges. The mode, as it were, is there, but it’s not ice to use it.
And the second point is the reaction of the application (or camera) to the sky. If most of the photo is occupied by a light area, then the photo falls almost into sepia, distorting colors and adding brown tones.
The situation is better with close objects.
And we can say that the phone copes well enough with shooting in diffused natural and artificial lighting.
And finally, let’s look at the screen’s ability to transmit a juicy, bright picture. It seems to me that everything is in order, the colors are natural, without imbalance.
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It is not easy to draw unequivocal conclusions regarding the Doogee N30, after all, this is a budget solution and it is always a compromise. Some are good, some are not. Of the obvious disadvantages, this is the lack of a smooth decrease in brightness when the screen is turned off and a smooth increase when turned on — i.e. either the image instantly disappears, or the quality of the cameras / application for shooting instantly appears. Good sides: a large amount of memory, sufficient for most modern, everyday tasks, a bright, juicy screen without distortions in shades, the absence of useless software and advertising, dual-band WiFi, the fifth version of Bluetooth, a camera block. In general, it turned out to be a strong budget middle peasant, without whims and glitches for everyday tasks.
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