When I first saw the DOOGEE V20, I was amazed. The phone brings in a new choice for people who need a rugged phone. The V20 is basically a rugged phone with a flagship look and a great screen.
As soon as I saw the box of DOOGEE V20, I knew it was different from other rugged phones. When you open the box, you can see the rich accessories inside. One of the most eye-catching ones is the white pry bar.
I have to say that DOOGEE is really thoughtful. It helps you to open the SIM Card Slot and charging port to avoid damaging your nails. And the phone comes with a pre-installed tempered film protector. However, DOOGEE still adds an extra Anti-explosion film in the box.
This power brick here is a 33w Type-C charger. And we tested its compatibility performance and found that it performed well, supporting PD 3.0 and PPS. It comes with a USB C to A Female cable. As you can see, the V20 is already better than most rugged phones right from its unboxing.
Doogee V20 Review: Design
I thought there was nothing much to say about the design of the rugged phone. It’s just a rubberized case with a few cameras in the middle. The bezel has some screws, and that’s it. But the design of the V20 does have some unique features. The rubber around the perimeter is not very raised, and the overall look is relatively flat. The material on the back is real carbon fiber. It is very smooth to touch and won’t be easily damaged. The most notable feature of the design is the camera module. Rectangular camera modules are common, but the small screen next to it is very interesting.
Yes, it’s a small touch screen. Time can be displayed and songs can be switched. It also comes with a tempered film pre-applied. Unfortunately, the rear screen can’t be used to show the camera preview.
Looking at the three lenses, we seem to have seen this design somewhere…. right?
Any way, you won’t see such a special design on other rugged phones. It has NFC and customizable buttons, which DOOGEE calls the Easy Key for customizable shortcuts. It also has a SIM Card Tray with Micro SD Card slot. Except for the lack of a headphone jack, the phone has all the features you’d want on a rugged device.
Doogee V20 Review: Display
But if you think the design of the V20 is its biggest selling point, you are in for a surprise. The phone’s biggest selling point is actually the screen. While other rugged phones are using LCD screens, the V20 is already using OLED. This OLED screen comes with a maximum brightness of 500 nits and definitely ranks on top among rugged phones.
Let’s compare it with other rugged phones featuring LCD screens. It is pretty obvious that there are shadows around the LCD screen of other rugged devices and the black areas are not pure black either. However, the V20 has none of these problems. The colors are vivid and the contrast is high, so you can enjoy a good experience with a high quality screen, even outdoors. A good screen must be protected, the protective glass of Corning Gorilla plus the tempered film is enough to ensure that the screen is not broken when dropped at a height of 1.8 meters. All interfaces are waterproof and it is IP68 and IP69K certified.
Doogee V20 Review: Cameras
The camera system of V20 consists of a 64MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide camera, and 20MP Night vision Camera. This camera system has performed well in the past few days of use. Because the main camera doesn’t have four in one pixel in auto mode like other phones, you get a clear, sharp photo most of the time. The benefit of the native 64 mega pixel is that you can crop the photo and it will still be sharp.
Main
Night mode is sometimes blurrier than photos taken in auto mode, so you can actually use auto mode for all scenes. Unless the environment is very dark, there is no need to switch to night mode.
Ultrawide
The ultra-wide camera can help you capture a wider range of images, but of course its photo quality is still inferior compared to the main camera.
Night Vision
Night vision camera is actually an infrared camera, but unfortunately this camera cannot auto-focus. When you are too close to the subject, infrared fill light will flash to remind you that the object is not in focus. When you move away from the object, it will return to normal. This will reduce your chances of getting a blurry picture. If you are using the video mode, the IR fill light will not flash.
Note that you can download the full size camera samples here.
Doogee V20 Review: Performance & Benchmarks
DOOGEE V20 uses the Dimensity 700 processor. We have seen this processor in many rugged phones. But we still decided to test its performance. The Antutu Bench score is 350,000 and the 3DMark score is 1102. As long as we don’t make things difficult for this processor, it has no problem handling daily applications and light games. For example, PUBG is also stable at 40fps.
The battery capacity is 6000mAh, and you can use it for two or three days without charging. While the V20 may not have the largest battery capacity we’ve ever seen, it’s definitely one of the fastest charging rugged phones in the market. And, it supports 15w wireless charging too! This is not common among rugged phones.
To conclude, the rugged phone market is pretty uniform and there are hardly any phones that can distinguish itself from the crowd. And DOOGEE V20 is one of them. It has an OLED screen and a unique design that no one else has. It gives the target users a new choice, and that’s the biggest point of its existence.
