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DOOGEE S70: This is supposed to be a rugged gaming smartphone
- Chinese budget phone manufacturer DOOGEE has announced the DOOGEE S70.
- DOOGEE is marketing the new handset as a rugged gaming phone, even though the chipset isn’t anywhere near flagship-level.
- The new phone has plenty of other highlights though, such as a 5,500mAh battery and gamepad attachment.
Chinese smartphone brand Doogee has been creating smartphones for a while, primarily focused on the low-end and mid-range sector. Now, the manufacturer has introduced what it calls a rugged gaming smartphone (as spotted by Android Police), but it doesn’t seem all that different from its usual fare.
The DOOGEE S70 sports a budget-minded MediaTek Helio P23 chipset, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage. The octa-core processor is clearly the weakest link here, featuring eight lightweight Cortex-A53 cores rather than any powerful CPU cores. Meanwhile, a Mali-G71 MP2 GPU handles graphical duties — a generation older and with one fewer cores than the Helio P60‘s Mali-G72 MP3 GPU.
So, the DOOGEE S70 already falls short on paper compared to current mid-range phones with the Helio P60 chipset, let alone full-fledged gaming phones with powerful Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 845 processors.
Nevertheless, the phone also packs a rugged design, featuring IP68 water/dust resistance and MIL-STD-810G certification for durability. The design is capped off by a camera housing and “leather grain” rear cover that makes the phone look like an Oukitel K10 000 Pro clone.
Other noteworthy features include a 6-inch full HD+ screen, 12MP+5MP rear camera setup, 16MP selfie camera, Android 8.1, USB Type-C, NFC, and a rear fingerprint scanner.
What warrants the gaming phone branding?
Rugged design aside, the DOOGEE S70 stands out from flagships and other gaming phones due to its battery capacity, offering a massive 5,500mAh pack. This is 1,500mAh bigger than the likes of the 4,000mAh ASUS ROG Phone, Xiaomi Black Shark and Razer Phone. And it also sports wireless charging as well as MediaTek’s Pump Express 3.0 fast charging solution.
But what actually makes it a gaming smartphone though? Well, it looks like DOOGEE decided to copy the Xiaomi Black Shark’s gaming attachment, which essentially gives you half a controller (consisting of a trigger button, D-pad and analog stick). A promotional video reckons you can get 15 days of usage out of the attachment (yay!), provided you play for two hours a day (boo!). Unfortunately, DOOGEE’s spec sheet shows the attachment isn’t bundled with the device, so you may as well buy a proper mobile gamepad instead.
Like virtually every other gaming smartphone on the market, DOOGEE has added a game mode to the S70 too, activated by a physical key on the device itself. Enter this mode and your calls/notifications will be blocked, while apps will be cleared from RAM.
The company hasn’t issued a price or launch date for the new smartphone, but we’re not sure if this really qualifies as a gaming phone in the first place. The rugged design and large battery are great additions in general, but other gaming phones offer way more powerful chipsets for today’s ever-demanding mobile titles.
What do you think of the DOOGEE S70? Would you buy it? Let us know in the comments!