Rugged phone is crazy right now, can you believe this phone in my hand is one of them? So tiny! It’s the latest S mini from Doogee. If I hadn’t told you about it, you might believe I am holding an old Nokia phone!

Comparison

In fact, let me start off by comparing this phone to the normal rugged phone, an old and glorious Nokia 105, along with some flagship smartphones. As you can see, S mini is a lot smaller and thinner than the Doogee V31 GT and those flagships, but at the same size as the Nokia 105. Regarding weight, S mini is nearly 60% lighter than the V31 GT, and almost the same as Nokia 105. This has taken me back to the days when I could only use texts and phone calls to contact people, via a pocketable mobile device, that was…..2004 maybe?

Size

It’s clearly a phone that can be held in your hand very securely, and also being operated absolutely one-handed. My thumb can easily get to the four corners without any effort, or conveniently toss it between both hands, this is the experience I have missed for so so long time. 

As a mini smartphone, it takes so much of the burden off, and unlocks a lot of possibilities you will be using this phone. Imagine you are on a hike to the mountain or just a walk around the city, this phone won’t add extra weight at all, whether to your backpack, or your pants. And of course, if you are a true minimalist, you can also take this phone as the alternative to those bulky smartphones. Trust me, you will fall in love with it if you get your hands on this S mini.

Specification side, this phone is equipped with Helio G99 Octa Core Processor, amazing 15GB Ram+256GB storage, you might be wondering how well it actually performs. By looking at the benchmarks, it got 413491, but what is surprising is that its MEM score is 113220, which means that its memory read and write ability can even reach a third of some flagship phones, single core performance is expected as the typical Helio G99 level, I would give it a good score actually. This phone has a 4.5” QHD+IPS display, it has decent clarity and response rate, but of course it’s too small for gaming, so we wouldn’t recommend playing games on it.

Camera

2This phone has AI Double Cameras that are 50MP+2MP combo. When we tried to take some photos with it. Through the blessing of two AI cameras, in the case of sufficient light during the day, its performance is still good, and you can even see the railing in the office window when you enlarger the picture. A compact rugged smart phone that’s not a camera-oriented device, the S MINI also works relatively well in night-view mode.

Feature

In terms of software, it has Android 13 original inside, such a clean and versatile system is always appreciated. In the few days with this phone, it’s 100% snappy and intuitive. There are also dual sim cards supported, or you can have one sim + one TF card here. So you know it can be your primary phone also if you are a fan of compact phones.

To my surprise, it has both fingerprint recognition and face unlock, they work really well and fast on this phone. And since it’s one tiny phone and I would usually hold it left-handed, I only entered the mid-finger in the phone, which is just right on the place of the reader, really convenient for me actually. But if you are a phone-on-the-right-hand person, then the thumb is the best finger to be in that place. Now the face unlock is also snappy, whenever you lift the phone up, the face unlock would do its job right after, such astonishing performance is the best level among all rugged phones I would say.

Another feature that has been passed down is the smart key here. This button is customizable, one click, double click, or long press, then get to a certain function or app you want. Furthermore, if this phone is going to be in the hands of an elder person, the easy launcher is a kind feature to have for them, as the cards are colorful enough to be recognized, and also very straightforward.

Battery

Now this phone has a 3000mAh battery embedded, you might argue that it is smaller than most phones nowadays, but since it is a much smaller phone and with the original Android system, the battery life is better by a mile. Since it runs on a small-sized display, in actual use, we wouldn’t be able to drain the battery in a day, this is actually a very good performance.

Digital Screen

Almost forgot, there is a little LED display at the back here, this screen is capable of showing the battery level, date and time, along with the temperature and humidity level. Once you put the phone facing down, this screen becomes an essential tool for you to get more info. This turns out to be the biggest surprise, I really like it.

Conclusion

So that’s all about the features we think you might be interested in this phone, to mention a few of them again, the truly palm size design, the impressive back info display, and the innovative rear display, all packed in this reinvented rugged shell. When holding this phone in hand, it feels natural, it feels right! It is mini but has mighty power inside, it can be your primary phone even in such a world filled with large and modern devices.

For more information about the Doogee S Mini Rugged phone, you can check out the Doogee Amazon store here.