Doogee V30 review

Why you tin spot TechRadar Our adept reviewers walk hours investigating and comparing products and services truthful you tin take the champion for you. Find retired much astir however we test.

Two-minute review

Each clip Doogee comes retired with a caller flagship design, it moves the barroom for galore companies successful the rugged telephone sector.

The caller V30 takes features exclusive to premium branded phones lone months agone and delivers them successful an affordable bundle for those that enactment outdoors oregon yearn to adventure.

Ticking the rugged telephone boxes, this is an IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H compliant plan that tin grip particulate and water, including afloat submersion for constricted periods and shallow depths.

But the parts of this telephone that volition involvement the discerning lawsuit are each inside. Specifically, the Dimensity 900 SoC, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of retention and 108MP camera.

These marque the V30 a potent and susceptible telephone that tin link utilizing 5G erstwhile disposable and seizure the satellite astir it successful astounding detail.

On the rear are a 108MP Samsung S5KHM2SP03 main camera (F1.79, 90-degree FOV, PDAF) a 20MP Sony IMX350 nighttime imaginativeness camera (F1.8, 70-degree FOV) and a 16MP wide-angle & macro camera (F2.2, 130-degree FOV).

For selfie-takers, the beforehand has a 32MP IMX616-AAJH5-C beforehand camera (F2.0, 90-degree FOV).

Like we’ve seen earlier with this sensor, the taking of 108MP images negates immoderate of the peculiar features similar HDR and Bokeh, but you tin get those things successful a 12MP mode.

However, different phones don’t connection 4K video capture, and the V30 does, on with little resolutions.

Viewing those pictures oregon streamed contented is casual connected its 6.58-inch IPS 120Hz show with a earthy solution of 2408 x 1080, akin to 1 of that we’ve seen earlier connected the Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro.

With a artillery capableness of 10800mAh, the V30 should run for much than 3 days of mean usage without needing a recharge. And, utilizing the included 66W charger, it tin retrieve 50% of its artillery capableness from bare successful astir 30 minutes.

These features and its 5G functionality marque the V30 an exceptionally bully prime for thing travelling abroad, capturing images and video and past securing them implicit cellular oregon WiFi connections.

It mightiness not beryllium the cheapest rugged telephone design, but the magnitude of exertion that Doogee shoehorned into it makes it easy worthy the asking price.

Doogee V30 terms and availability

• How overmuch does it cost? $449.99 / £407.99/ $AU 779
• When is it out? It is disposable now
• Where tin you get it? You tin get it successful astir regions nonstop from AliExpress oregon connected Amazon.com

The Doogee V30 costs $449.99 straight from Doogee oregon $529.99 connected Amazon.com for next-day delivery. European costs from online retailers are somewhat better, with the Amazon.co.uk outgo being conscionable £407.99.

Whereas nonstop from an Australian online retailer, the V30 costs AU$ 779.

But if you privation a existent bargain Doogee has this telephone astatine its ain outlet connected AliExpress, and it costs lone £329.16 oregon $395.24, though transportation mightiness instrumentality 30 days oregon more.

Considering the features of this phone, the terms is precise competitive.

• Value score: 5/5

Doogee V30 design

• Built to last
• By-the-numbers buttons
• No audio jack

From the outside, determination isn’t overmuch extremist astir the V30, arsenic it falls into the acquainted tropes wherever astir ample rugged phones fall.

One unsocial facet is that the phone's assemblage has a boat-like profile, making it somewhat easier to grip than immoderate thicker telephone models. Having its sides elevated besides helps erstwhile picking up, which mightiness different beryllium a challenge.

The operation uses a operation of a milled metallic framework covered mostly successful impact-resistant integrative and dense TPU. This has been texturized for amended grip and to lucifer a conception of ‘leather’ connected the level underside.

One curiosity is the broadside panels that person a wood atom finish, though it's hard to find what they’re really made from. It each looks nice, and with the ‘Leather’ underside, it gives the telephone the consciousness of a luxury car interior.

Every telephone shaper seems to beryllium glued to this layout with the thumb-activated powerfulness button, and Doogee engineers didn’t subordinate that trend. It works good for right-handed users and little elegantly for left-handed.

Typically, rugged Chinese-made phones travel with a SIM tray that tin judge 2 Nano SIMs and a MicroSD card, but the V30 lone supports 1 Nano alongside the MicroSD or, alternatively, 2 Nano and nary MicroSD.

However, arsenic we’ll screen elsewhere, this telephone supports eSIMs, truthful it tin person up to 5 antithetic numbers and services if required.

The charging and information larboard is the USB-C assortment placed connected the centre of the bottommost borderline and covered successful a rubber plug. We’ve seen designs by Ulefone precocious that dispensed with the rubber plug but inactive offering to waterproof, thing Doogee needs to see offering successful its designs.

However, the telephone volition wirelessly complaint astatine 15W with a suitable Qi wireless charger if repeatedly removing the plug annoys you.

What is missing is immoderate 3.5mm audio jack. Doogee assumes euphony fans volition beryllium utilizing Bluetooth oregon bargain their ain USB-C-to-audio adapter, arsenic 1 isn’t included successful the box.

What you get with the telephone is simply a integrative instrumentality to debar breaking a nail opening the SIM tray, a Euro pinned wall-socket PSU rated to 66W, USB-C to USB-C OTG cable, immoderate surface protecting accessories and a User Manual.

Design score: 4/5

Doogee V30 hardware

• Powerful
• High specification
• eSIM flexibility

The MediaTek Dimensity 900 is the SoC of prime for flagship designs for those companies unwilling to wage Qualcomm for the latest Snapdragon silicon. We’ve seen it utilized successful the V30 and the Ulefone Power Armor 18T, and it impressed america successful some devices.

This is simply a third-generation MediaTek APU that combines dual ARM Cortex-A78 show cores with six ARM Cortex-A55 cores for efficiency. Its integrated GPU is Mali-G68 MC4 tin grip 4K video encoding/decoding and supports OpenGL3.1 and Vulkan for 3D rendering.

As an SoC and not conscionable a CPU/GPU, this 6nm spot tin link to LPDDR4X oregon LPDDR5X, and supports UFS 2.1 and 3.1 storage.

In this phone, the representation benignant is LPDDR4X, and this is 1 of those designs wherever the magnitude of RAM tin beryllium expanded by sacrificing immoderate of the storage. This representation fusion mode enables up to 15GB of RAM to beryllium allocated, astir doubling the magnitude disposable for apps.

But it isn’t conscionable the SoC and representation exemplary that is premium connected this design. The networking exertion is besides authorities of the art, with WiFi 6 (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth 5.2, and mobile comms for 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G cellular services.

Using the dual SIM mode tin take from carnal SIMs and eSIMs, and if the work supplier supports the mode, it tin pass implicit dual 5G links astatine up to 2.7Gbps download speeds.

Where the eSIM exemplary utilized successful the V30 is genuinely revolutionary is that the full process of getting a work tin beryllium achieved from the phone. If you ideate wanting to spell to a distant state and needing a section fig and service, this would usually impact sourcing a carnal SIM and paying for that work erstwhile you arrive.

Using the pre-installed eSIM store, you tin simply prime the state and the required information plan, authorisation the outgo and magically, you’ve present got entree to the section work and a mobile number. And, if you are progressive successful immoderate shuttle diplomacy oregon the like, it is imaginable to person 4 eSIM numbers progressive astatine immoderate time.

The lone disappointment successful the hardware is that the V30  doesn’t enactment the Widevine L1 video decryption standard, lone L3. With lone L3 decryption streaming services similar Netflix and Disney+ trim the champion solution disposable to conscionable 480p. 1080p playback connected YouTube and with seizure videos is possible, but not implicit the mainstream services.

This regulation appears to beryllium the norm among Chinese phones, regrettably.

• Hardware score: 4/5

Doogee V30 cameras

• 108MP sensor connected the rear
• Wide-angle, macro and nighttime vision
• Four cameras successful total

The Doogee V30 has 4 cameras:

• Rear cameras: 108MP Samsung S5KHM2, 16 MP OmniVision OV16B10 (Ultra-Wide), 20MP Sony IMX350 (Night Vision)
  Front camera: 32MP SONY IMX616 Sensor (Wide)

We’ve seen the 108MP Samsung S5KHM2 main sensor earlier connected the Ulefone 17 Pro, and it tin present immoderate astonishing solution images if you request the highest levels of detail.

The trade-off for getting 12000 x 8992 solution pictures is that it volition lone bash this successful a basal snapshot mode, with each the clever Pro and specializer seizure being constricted to 12MP.

With specified a ample sensor and each the airy it tin capture, the 12MP results are excellent, but it would beryllium bully to extract much solution without losing each the shooting modes.

Where this camera plan differs from that successful the Ulefone 17 Pro is it uses 8MP supporting wide-angle sensors, portion the ones successful the V30 are 16MP and 32MP. This results successful amended close-up and macro results, on with amended selfies.

But it isn’t lone the supporting sensors that are mostly better, but besides the mode that the main 108MP is exploited is superior successful the V30.

We’ve seen designs that usage this sensor and past connection lone 2K video resolution, but the V30 does connection 3840 x 2160, aka  4K UHD. The surface mightiness not person the solution to show these seizure without scaling, but it tin drawback video astatine 4K.

There is inactive enactment to beryllium done here, Because irrespective of what video solution you pick, the lone framerate disposable is 30fps. Not lone is this not adjuvant for those that similar 25fps, but it besides ignores each the possibilities for dilatory motion.

That constituent aside, the results from this camera are outstanding, with exceptionally crisp images and earthy colours, and they’re comparatively artefact-free.

While I’m definite that the latest Apple oregon Samsung premium plan mightiness beryllium capable to bash better, determination isn’t overmuch that is substandard astir the images the V30 tin capture.

Camera samples

• Camera score: 4/5

Doogee V30 performance

• All-round performer
• Strong GPU
• Power and efficiency

The show of this telephone is terrific, arsenic crossed the benchmarks. These results show its superiority to MediaTek Helio bid SoCs and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G successful each test. The Dimensity 900 is equivalent to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 successful a fewer respects, though it is marginally amended successful galore areas.

Where often Octo-core SoCs are bully astatine multi-thread tests but little wondering astatine single-task challenges, the 2.5GHz Cortex-A78 show cores present fantabulous single-thread performance. But erstwhile 2 of these are combined with the six Cortex-A55 cores, it tin besides execute fantabulous results successful multi-threaded scenarios.

Compared to the MediaTek Helio G99 phones, the V30 is astir 30% faster astatine single-thread tests and up to 25-30% amended astatine multi-threaded. And it wholly crushes little G and P bid SoCs.

The Mali-G68 MC4 is besides a melodramatic betterment implicit the Mali-G57 MC2 utilized successful the G99 designs, delivering an betterment of astir 40% successful astir of the 3DMark benches and person to 80% successful Wild Life.

Overall, the show of this telephone is fantastic, arsenic the configuration of the SoC allows for precocious show and powerfulness ratio erstwhile priorities change.

There is thing low-budget astir the show of the V30.

• Performance score: 5/5

Doogee V30 battery

• Good artillery size
• 66W Fast charging
• 15W Qi charging

When phones get much than 10,000 mAh, they’ve got capable artillery for extended usage without a recharge, and this 1 has 10800 mAh of artillery inside.

According to Doogee, the V30 should run for much than 3 days of emblematic usage without needing a recharge, and it mightiness marque it to a fourth.

The included 66W charger tin retrieve 50% of its artillery capableness from bare successful astir 30 minutes, though if you usage the 15W wireless charging, it volition instrumentality 4 hours to scope the aforesaid level.

There are rugged designs that connection much battery, but they commercialized value for that advantage, and the carnal wide of the V30 isn’t truthful large that it becomes impractical.

The disposable capableness is capable for a camping holiday, and the powerfulness ratio of the level makes the astir of it.

• Battery score: 4/5

The V30 is easy the champion Doogee telephone we’ve tested truthful far, with galore affirmative aspects and comparatively fewer caveats.

It has a almighty platform, an awesome camera, decent artillery beingness and 5G communications. But the stand-out diagnostic is the inclusion of eSIM technology, which makes planetary usage importantly little of a hassle.

We’d similar to spot much camera options astatine 108MP, framerate power connected the video, and L1 Widevine decryption, but those things could each beryllium added with firmware and bundle enhancements.

Doogee has acceptable a caller precocious watermark for rugged phones, and we can’t hold to spot however its competitors react.

Doogee V30 people card

Should I bargain a Doogee V30?

Buy it if...

Don't bargain it if...

Also consider