Doogee have a rep for releasing phones with bad firmware, and not bothering to fix it.

If you want a cheapish phone, stick to Xiaomi.

Recently got this phone when its was on pre sale. Good build quality and best price for 6gb ram phone on the market. Not a bezel less phone. Don't get deceived by the pictures. This phone won't work properly in the darkness...suddenly show white screen, stops videos in the middle...advice. Read the review before purchase.

Bezel-less? Does bezel have an entirely different meaning these days because the image shows a significant black frame around the screen?

Had two Doogee phones (X5 Pro & X6 Pro) previously, both very snappy and decent performers but both had camera problems when used in apps. Camera quality and response was also below average.

How DO Samsung etc, justify the price??

My wife insisted on a Samsung Galaxy Note when she finally gave up on iPhones last year. My Xiaomi not only rungs rings around it, response-wise, but is more stable and is better at getting a 4G signal in our semi-rural environment (it has locked up twice).

On top of that, my battery has always lasted longer than hers; HER battery will barely last a day now; even my 4 y/o Xiaomi Note3G lasts longer than that, and my newer Xiaomi Note 3SE will go for 3-5 days, depending on use.

The combined cost of my 3* Xiaomi phones is still LESS than the cost of her heavily discounted Samsung, so how do they justify the price??

* 3 phones, as the 2nd got accidentally crushed over Easter, not even a Xiaomi can survive a 20 ton compactor.

Good phones and a great price, considering we have to renew so often. Our whole family used to have iphones but after too many expensive breakages, we got rid of the burden and are now happy playing with always up-to-date droids. With 4 x £5 monthly contracts that include roaming and £100-ish non-branded phones, our mobile costs became non-issue.

I've had this phone for a couple of months now. Build quality is quite simply excellent. I cannot fault it. Battery life also excellent, even with heavy use it will easily last 24 hours. Operating system runs smooth (although I've replaced the Doogee launcher with Google's Pixel launcher). WiFi is stable too, unlike previous Chinese phones I've used. All apps etc work fine on it. So what's not to like? OK - in a word: the camera. It's not unusable. But its not far off that. Considering its supposed to have two lenses etc. It's clear that the camera software is not up to the job - it crashes, doesn't focus well and can do weird colour correction. So much so, I've replaced the camera with the google camera app, which is at least stable. Pictures however still aren't brilliant - so maybe its the hardware. A shame really, as the rest of the phone is really very nice.

That's exactly right, and is the reason Huawei phones that *don't* get released here are also cheap as chips - they don't have to go through the same regulatory process with all the networks that they do when selling phones over here, nor the same amount of software testing. All of this could cost as much as the raw 'ingredients' of the phone itself. For the most part, the materials phones are built out of on their own are incredibly inexpensive. The process of researching, designing followed by testing, network approval, marketing and all the various taxes are what contribute to the expense, as well as the cost of actually selling the product in high street shops and online stores in the UK or Europe, where people tend to cost more than in China

Xiaomi can charge less because they don't pay the same royalties nor have the same marketing and research costs. I'm not justifying the Apple price tag but the ridiculous low prices are due to a combination of things. If Xiaomi were ever released in the UK instead of imported it'll still cost the same as the Huawei phones.

There's a reason you don't see these in UK high Street, they're s***.

Wouldn't touch any Samsung with a bargepole after my £300 S4 Mini just died last year (won't charge, turn on or anything, despite trying several batteries)

At least if my £105 Xiaomi dies it's not that much to replace or get the new/improved version.

You're right though as these Chinese imports aren't for everyone!

Get what you pay for, cheapskates.

To be fair, I've always found lesser brand Chinese phones un-polished products.

It's true that they can appear to be a bit of a bargain based on price, specification and the fantastically shot images of the devices on the sellers web page.

When you ultimately get the product out of the box they usually feel quite cheap.

I've had very good luck with the likes of ZTE and I'd happily buy one of their phones if the reviews said they were a good buy.

There's usually a few compromises to be made with the lesser brands, to the extent that I'd rather wait for a better deal on a discounted known brand.

Your mileage might vary of course, but I've never been wowed by any of the lesser brands to date. I'm sure that may well change in the future but for now, I'll carry on with the likes of ZTE and unloved LG smartphones :smiley:

I lived in China for a while, a few years back; I got to go and try out a lot of the home grown phones at the huge electronics malls; the one local to my apartment was 6 stories high, of which 3 stories were entirely phone related.
The only phone brands that I would consider (at the time) were Lenovo, HTC, and Huawai, who were unknown brands in the West at the time; the Doogees, Cubo, etc, were terrible, slow, buggy and with no support or bug fixing from the makers - that is how 90% of the Chinese home market works, if you buy it, they have no further interest in you. They have NO concept of resales or customer loyalty.
Xiaomi DONT sell much to the Chinese home market, Chinese language is on their phones mostly because they sell to Taiwan; so they know about customer support and are trying to build a reputation in the west; it is the reason I first risked buying one of their phones; I could see they werent a typical Chinese landfill phone maker.

I forgot to mention, I havent paid customs duty on any product bought from China and shipped via the Royal Mail, not one, regardless of declared value. I mention on another thread, I once received a roof rack marked as valued at £175, RM delivered it without batting an eyelid. The same rack in the UK would cost ~£600.

BTW, did you know the head of Samsung phone R&D left and went to work for Xiaomi a couple of years ago?? It is why the XIaomi Note 2 is lacking a microSD slot, as he hates the format and had it removed from the Samsung phones he helped design.
Both Samsung and Xiaomi put it back on their phones after he moved on again.

Would this work all my apps as its not uk brand, eg tsb, android auto and bt tv apps

On build quality no, but on price, yes. You can buy a number of mid range Xiaomi's with better build quality, screens and CPUs than this dog, and for less money.

The 6GB RAM advert reminds me of something I was told many years ago; when transistor radios were first introduced they used precisely ONE transistor; then models starting appearing advertising two, three, or even four transistors, with a price boost for each claim.

And they really did have the extra transistors, soldered onto a spare bit of circuit board and not active in any way.

I came across something similar with some semi-pro disco light control boards in the early 90's; you could eliminate 25% of the circuitry and the boards operated in EXACTLY the same way. The extra circuitry was there to convince buyers it was worth the extra cost over rival brands.
They were also one of the first places to start putting their own part numbers on the TRIACs, so you HAD to buy their over priced spares, as there was no way to identify a correct 3rd party version.
They were charging £5 per TRIAC, and buying them for 50p.

(How do I know? I worked for them for 3 months).

downside is if you try sell this phone private you be lucky to only get £50 as when people see a phone of a name they never heard of they will not pay a daft amount of money incase it went faulty and people will think its cheap Chinese ****

Long post that seems to be claiming superiority without any proof, "these threads" i assume you mean Chinese phones in general? Well my last phone was a £40 THL and it did the job it lasted just over a year and then i unfortunately failed it rather then the other way round technically it still works but the screen is smashed. My brother has a Xiaomi Redmi the original its a few years old, it works, I've got a Xiaomi now myself which seems to be lovely.

Meanwhile samsung made a phone that set fire to itself not that long ago and had to be recalled.

Ah whoops sorry I misread it as Helio X25 not P25...

This might be a phone to keep an eye on 'if' they sort out the bugs with firmware updates

That's your anecdotal basis for thinking that, which is fair enough. On the whole it seems that your experience is not typical though as these devices don't seem to be particularly solid or entirely stable on the whole - the cheapness tends to come with caveats. Xiaomi are not a small player but they do cater to their own market and there are issues that result from that.

Also did you pay any taxes in order to import your Xiaomi? That's another thing Samsung has to consider, along with the added cost of warranties, R&D on their cameras and other hardware...it's easy to bang out devices if you never need to worry about servicing the needs of your customer once you've got their money. Samsung also spend an astronomical amount of money on marketing, which has to be paid for somehow

Ultimately you do get what you pay for to some extent although the mid-range seems to be very close to the premium end of the market these days, such that with things like the S8 you're primarily paying for the camera and the build quality and reliability.

People will always want to pay a bit more - I don't understand why people shop at places like M&S primarily for the feel of the venue when the food isn't particularly better than anywhere else - in fact in some cases Aldi food is better in my opinion, even if it isn't as nicely packaged. If people enjoy it though it's their money, and everyone else is free to shop more cheaply elsewhere. Same with these devices really.

How do Samsung justify charging their prices? Put simply, people will pay it so why wouldn't they? They're not a charity.

Still have x5pro from hukd, and bought another 4 for family members. Day to day great phone for money camera weak. Does everything and more general user wants, but not good enough for tech savvy teen. But then I am not looking to blow 500+ on a phone, that I use a handful of apps and importantly my connectivity email etc for Business. Would never go back to branded.

Is this phone virus free without rooting it ? I had to return Doogee phone in the past as it was full of unremovable viruses in the firmware.

Can't believe people purchase phones in the hope that firmware updates are released....

Xiaomi is the 3rd largest smartphone manufacturer in the world after Apple and Sammy so you can't really compare them to Doogee

Seems expensive for a doogee. You get 6gb ram(pointless) but the camera is terrible.

How DO Samsung etc, justify the price??

My wife insisted on a Samsung Galaxy Note when she finally gave up on iPhones last year. My Xiaomi not only rungs rings around it, response-wise, but is more stable and is better at getting a 4G signal in our semi-rural environment (it has locked up twice).

On top of that, my battery has always lasted longer than hers; HER battery will barely last a day now; even my 4 y/o Xiaomi Note3G lasts longer than that, and my newer Xiaomi Note 3SE will go for 3-5 days, depending on use.

The combined cost of my 3* Xiaomi phones is still LESS than the cost of her heavily discounted Samsung, so how do they justify the price??

* 3 phones, as the 2nd got accidentally crushed over Easter, not even a Xiaomi can survive a 20 ton compactor.

I've had the x6 and just got an x6 pro for 45 in their sale...I've find the x6 pro fantastic...it's slot better than x6 ...I'm not a heavy user so it's just spot on attitude towards that price point....the experience tend to vary though depending on firmware etc.

Last phone was a Doogee.
Fairly well built, looks the part but absolute worst phone I've ever owned.

Signal constantly going, weak WiFi, crashes forcing restarts daily and the camera was absolute **** despite the megapixel claims, shutter speed rendered it borderline useless.

Avoid.

Dogee Doogee

Looking at the review video, it seems they've not really updated the core android apps.

Probably recommend a Snapdragon 820 based phone from banggood at this price. This looks great. It's just even with higher end processor the phone will slow down over time.

Bought a Lenovo zuk z2 from the same site. Great phone for the money. Surprisingly good ram management (only 4gb!) Though the firmware definitely feels quite polished.

HUKD is absolutely littered with these threads these days. I imagine the same people buying them are the same ones who ask how Samsung etc can justify charging what they do. The answer I think is inherent within these threads - on the whole they make very reliable phones that don't ship with broken functionality and offer actual tangible warranties that don't require S75 credit card protection.

I can't help but see these devices as little more than projects for people to tinker with and I'm amazed when people say they buy them for non-tech-savvy family members.

Don't get me wrong, these devices are interesting and I enjoy seeing what China can build for a budget and reading about them but they don't seem to be a direct replacement for most (supposedly inferior spec) alternatives from Motorola etc on the high street.

Devices like this are for those who think spec sheets are more important than reliability and warranty in my opinion.

Nice looking device though!

Well, judging by the comments, one could say that the reliability isn't particularly credible.

Duggee? Sounds like a dodgy guy raiding bins to me.

The Helio X20 is more powerful than the P25

Forgot to say, I really like the phone. It's like poop off a stick, with no lag.
The camera is very average though. Battery life is good.
I'd recommend it for the money I paid for it.

Have it - happy user. :smile: Can recommend it!

Reading through that product description didn't instill much confidence...

There was hardly a sentence without having a typo or being poorly worded.

You'd think they could employ someone who speaks English fluently.

Are there customs charges with BangGood?

6gb not enough, I run 20 apps simultaneously.

Doogee phones are OK for kids as you can pick one up for £50, but I wouldn't use it myself. I got an X5 Pro for my daughter last year, lasted a year before she dropped it and smashed the screen. She's now using a Leagoo M8 Pro which so far appears to be far better all round quality and it was also a breeze to install custom ROM compared to Doogee. My main problem with Doogee was build quality, USB port became loose after 6 months, so I wouldn't go for another Doogee, there is better quality available in the same price range.

Not related to this specific device but F**K Doogee.

Translated: I am a sucker for marketing.

Recently got this phone when its was on pre sale. Good build quality and best price for 6gb ram phone on the market. Not a bezel less phone. Don't get deceived by the pictures. This phone won't work properly in the darkness...suddenly show white screen, stops videos in the middle...advice. Read the review before purchase.

Years ago, I loved the design on my Doogee Dagger but it lasted just 6 months and had hardware issues. Real shame as I thought it was a great phone for the money. Please read the reviews before buying any Doogee phone.

Specs look good, dual cameras, 6gb ram, 64gb storage, and then they go and ruin it by putting a 720p display on it!!

When will you ever reach the 6GB RAM limit in a phone with that bad SoC, the SoC will not even be able to handle that many applications at once anyway, also Doogee are known for firmware problems too

6gb RAM means nothing as per this review of the UMI Plus E (first link) Also the benchmark scores of the DooGee Mix is lower than the Redmi Note 4 which has 3gb RAM and lower rated Helio X20 CPU so basically don't believe the hype on this phone.

UMI PLUS E - 6gb RAM means nothing

Redmi Note 4 - DooGee Mix benchmarks are terrible

never buy this brand phone again, they build phone that dont last.

Seen loads of reviews on YouTube definitely not bezeless. If you are after a Chinese phone either Xiaomi or Huawei :smile:

Bezel-less? Does bezel have an entirely different meaning these days because the image shows a significant black frame around the screen?

Had two Doogee phones (X5 Pro & X6 Pro) previously, both very snappy and decent performers but both had camera problems when used in apps. Camera quality and response was also below average.

Or you could, for this sort of price (and considering the reviews), go to a more reputable brand such as Samsung, Sony, Iphone etc. I would rather a different phone which I know would be reliable.
*My opinion*

6GB / 64GB sounds amazing for £148 but it's just marketing, a sucker punch for when you get the phone and it messes you about so much you wish you didn't have it. I'd much rather have a really good user experience that some dodgy firmware knock off phone. One reason I moved from Galaxy S6 to Xperia XZ as the XZ doesn't come with all the Samsung cack and if you break the screen it doesn't as much of a fortune to fix.

I'd love to see how users are using all that RAM up as well.

DooGee is one of the only brands of phone that ended up being faulty within the space of a year for me. Not sure I'd go for one again. Elephone also I'd maybe pass up on.

Doogee have a rep for releasing phones with bad firmware, and not bothering to fix it.

If you want a cheapish phone, stick to Xiaomi.

Got this phone.
Firmware problems.
To get the screen working in darkness, you have to turn off the adaptive brightness.

The original releases with the 20170617 system wont OTA update. But I understand all the newer ones are fine and update properly.

Hardware problems or firmware; and if so, is there a firmware fix in the pipeline?

:man: