Genuine (unpaid) Doogee S98 Pro review

A genuine review of a phone I bought. Not sponsored in any way.
This is the Doogee S98 Pro (the Pro version has thermal imaging.)
If you have had good or bad experiences with this phone then you can leave a comment below.
Having now tested this for a month and a half I regard it as a true engineer's flagship phone. It has functional technical features well suited to the maintenance and engineering industries, of which the most important is the stunning Infiray thermal imaging camera with its 256 by 192 thermal resolution and 25Hz refresh. (Infiray are currently challenging Flir in the thermal imaging market.)
For some reason, many of the USA networks do not always support world-standards. To quote from an Amazon listing:-
“DOOGEE S98 Pro Does NOT work with AT&T OR Cricket OR CDMA Carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, Boost Mobile, Straight Talk or U.S.Cellular, Xfinity and TracFone!
It CAN work with GSM Carriers like T-Mobile,Metro PCS, MVNO and Others!”
If you find it's incompatible with your current provider the phone can still be used as a handy workshop tool on WiFi only. I use a couple of phones like that.
This phone cost me £300, but popularity and duty charges may increase that. If purchased from Amazon it will probably be more expensive, but will come with some level of purchase security.
I got this one from this AliExpress outlet:-
www.aliexpress...
Doogee aren't new to the market. They've been making rugged outdoor phones for ten years. So it does have a pedigree. It certainly seems to be well built.
One thing I didn't mention is that I did test the compass/gyro type functionality with SkyMap and it performed well. It's also worth mentioning that it doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but that's common with rugged phones for waterproofing reasons. This phone is supposed to be submersible in water, but I didn't tempt fate by testing that. Suffice to say I wouldn't worry about using it in the rain.
Because of its chunkiness it's definitely best suited to cargo or chest pockets on overalls, or a suitable belt holster. It may not be suitable for fashionistas with skinny jeans.
It will be interesting to see if there are security updates to this phone on a regular basis. I do recommend plugging your phone in for any updates, and ignore the "may take a few minutes" bit. Just let it do its thing even if it seems to be taking a while.
So far I love this phone. It's perfect for work where you can look at electrical equipment and bearings for signs of overheating. It also makes fast work of finding rogue components on PCBs.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.c...
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators

[@roberthoople]

It's good to see that our tricorders are finally getting closer to being tricorders, rather than just being Candy Crush advertising machines.

[@kyoudaiken]

Still wonder why they didn't use the Tricorders as communication devices as well.

[@martinbalmforth2665]

It just needs that bluetooth whistly scanner thingy

[@roberthoople]

@@kyoudaiken I wondered about that too. Perhaps it's a built-in feature they can use if necessary, since Tricorders seem to have a data connection with the ship. Although I'd still prefer to use the comm badge for comms, since it's very convenient. Same with the original series flip communicators. I'm actually planning on building a Bluetooth badge, similar to the comm badge, at some point in the future, and then trying to tie it in with a walkie talkie app or something on my phone. But that got me thinking that in Star Trek, maybe the comm badges connect to the tricorder for longer distance comms, like on away missions, since the tricorder would have more power and range due to its larger size. Although, I don't think canon supports that hypothesis at all, but it would make logical sense in a real world scenario I think.

[@Petertronic]

Candy Crush is free though.

[@treguard1982]

May the force be with you :D

[@andrewwilson6240]

I remember back in the 80s I used to use a thermal camera for the very purpose you demonstrated. Finding hot spots in electrical substations. It came in 2 metal cases, and you also needed a flask of liquid nitrogen to cool the sensor. I dread to think what it cost!

[@Mrbrownthesemite]

Holy crap

[@Marks-Garage]

We used a FLIR camera now to perform Thermovision of substations. We even have a few drones with thermal cameras. I have just got the bigger brother of this phone the V20 pro and its amazing that this sort of technology can be put in such a small device.

[@ecospider5]

If you need to fast charge a phone but want to protect the battery set a water bottle on it. If your water bottle has a reasonably flat bottom then it will be a fantastic heat sink and will keep the battery cool while charging. When I tried this the first time I was amazed how cool the phone got after just 2 minutes. It was about 10 degrees above ambient instead of 30 degrees above ambient.

[@stepheneyles2198]

Why has that got me thinking about using a phone as a Teas-made? Immerse phone in water jug, set to charge, wake to nice warm brew when your alarm goes off!! 😁

[@nobodynoone2500]

@@stepheneyles2198 sounds like an overly complicated sous-vide

[@OffendingTheOffendable]

That's ridiculous

[@UserUser-ww2nj]

@@stepheneyles2198 😂😂😂

[@Havlock]

Could you achieve the same effect by placing a heatsink on the phone instead of a water bottle?

[@CJDavies]

The big concern for me with all Chinese handsets like this is that you are at the mercy of the manufacturer when it comes to the Android OS & its associated security updates. The hardware from manufacturers like Doogee, Ulefone, etc. may be stellar, but far too often they ship with older versions of Android & receive security updates late or never at all.

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

That was what made me go for the 98Pro instead of the latest Blackview. BV puts their extra layer on top of Android so they are behind in version. Doogee seem to use pretty bog standard Android and updates reasonably quick.

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

I always find it funny how everyone cries about being behind in android versions and "hurr durr security!!11"... what? are you that paranoid that the proof of concept exploits that either require physical access (ie pointless) or prolonged contact to the phone (ie someone stalking you) hit *you* specifically with nothing of value whatsoever to get? 🤣 It's almost like the intel CPU exploits that no average joe would be target of because it either requires physical access or the owner has to be straight-up dumb AF to run whatever they get sent... ie a complete nonstarter for someone with half a brain edit: not to mention getting an android phone and then crying about security and privacy.. and a chinese one at that 🤣

[@Zlodej5]

One of the way to look is Lineage, Doogie is big enough to have a rom available. you will be supprised how Good Lineage is. Warnings: 1.Custom rom will void your warranty. Lineageos (custom android) Tends to be fixed faster and more often then even mainstream flagships. 2. With custom roms if unofficial release (some phones do official lineage release) you rely on how trustworthy the maintainer is. As there is a risk that china might endup spying on you via custom rom, as well as official one

[@nickgray123]

Installing a custom rom often involves rooting the phone/bootloader...which can mean banking apps etc won't work ? Is that still the case ?

[@Zlodej5]

@@nickgray123 This depends on the phone and ROM. By default Lineage now installs unrooted and barclays works for me on mine XIOMI which does let you unlock bootloader the formal way without having to root anything, but makes you wait 30 days to do it. On mine old samsung accessing advanced features was about breaking in, but it being samsung that was well researched by its users and yet again barclays app worked until recently when I was on another end of UK and barclays have decided to stop doing contactless in the middle of the day without telling anyone ahead...

[@maximusironthumper]

That picture of the power lines is incredible. I've been very happy with my thermal camera equipped Blackview (bought following your review I think) but I'm now very tempted to upgrade!

[@bigclivedotcom]

I'm surprised how quickly thermal cameras have evolved.

[@ytmndleaks1598]

​@@bigclivedotcomshut up wankjon

[@ionstorm66]

My biggest gripe with the night vision ir camera, is it automatically cranks the screen brightness when you chnage to it. This blinds you and makes it hard to use.

[@Yonatan24]

The screen goes only up to 500nits which is ridiculously dim

[@markrainford1219]

What is a nit?@@Yonatan24

[@acidhelm]

Android has a nice feature called adaptive charging. If you plug the phone in at night, and you have an alarm set for some time in the morning, the phone will charge slowly and at just the right speed so the phone reaches a full charge just before the alarm goes off.

[@ryanjcole]

iOS and iPadOS have the same feature, and you can override it if needed. But you do have to have faith in the software to do it. Using a 5VDC source avoids the need to have faith.

[@justthisguyyouknow666]

Ah, so that's how it works! I don't use an alarm, but I do use a charging pad that simply shuts off when the phone is charged.

[@motogeee510]

So it won't cycle off an on while charging an possibly flash the screen on while doing so ? An screw u apple an Samsung? Sounds like an invitation 😂

[@gordonwelcher9598]

Only 48 megapixels traditional? So useless. So traditional.

[@jamesmauer7398]

I've not seen this on any android phones so far - which phone/OS has this?

[@umbrellacorp.]

Really nice phone, I like it.📱 And you didn't destroy it and say it's a durability test like other youtubers. 😎👍 I hate seeing people destroy nice stuff for nothing.

[@mariusschmitt5855]

Yes destroying phones for testing or just for fun is wasteful and kind of unnesscessary. I like to watch "Jerryrigeverything" videos but his "manhandling" of Smartphones makes me angry.

[@NiyaKouya]

Nice review, that beast really looks like a workhorse. But one aspect would kill it for me: the screen. Ever since I had my first AMOLED phone I swore to never go back to IPS screens because the "true black" and energy saving options with dark themes are just too good. And about long-term updates/patches: AFAIK google is more or less forcing manufacturers that use Android to support their phones for 3 years with 2 major version upgrades and regular security patches. Though some companies apparently found loopholes to get around that...

[@bigclivedotcom]

The Chinese are notorious for not following mere rules. (Which is sometimes admirable.)

[@tjsynkral]

US phone user here, can confirm that our market is often neglected for being a bit "weird." This phone will work with T-Mobile US but only on 4G and T-Mobile is nerfing the shit out of their 4G to convince people to get 5G. I used to be 100Mbps+ on 4G now I'm lucky if I get 5Mbps 4G, in a spot with 500+Mbps 5G.

[@MMuraseofSandvich]

I've experienced dead zones on T-mo, and it's even worse for me because I'm using an MVNO so I'm towards the bottom of the priority totem pole...

[@detoxorg]

Is it because 5G uses ipv6 exclusively so tracking is several magnitudes easier than with IP hopping 4G?

[@oldblueshirtguy]

@@detoxorg No. CGNAT IPv4 systems are actually easier to log (track) than IPv6 as it's a requirement for CGNAT to work. With CGNAT IPv4 you log not only the IP (user), but the port/protocol and therefore can also more easily determine the application they're using. IPv6 enhances privacy over IPv4.

[@dimitar4y]

@@detoxorg yep. ipv6 allows easier "unique" tracking. Your ip can stay the same across multiple cell-towers as it doesn't need to change. Don't listen to people saying ipv6 is "better".

[@makak_zeleny]

@@dimitar4y do you think your carrier doesn't know which cell tower you're connected to? And if you are talking about other services that might track you, I would be more concerned about the dozens of device fingerprinting methods rather than your IP

[@mattymerr701]

The "prominent western" brands have also had issues with advertising. I think the industry attempted it at one point to see what they could do and realised the hell that users can sometimes raise

[@gorak9000]

At one point? US phones still come with lots of crapware pre-installed that you can't uninstall unless you root the phone.

[@thomasvlaskampiii6850]

​@@gorak9000 And with most new phones, good luck rooting them

[@lifeai1889]

why would u even trust closed source os always use lineage or sth like that

[@tncorgi92]

I had a Samsung Galaxy J3 that came with so much pre-installed, non-removable crap that it took up half the 16GB of memory, I wasn't able to install all the apps I needed. Recently got a Nokia G300 and am very happy with it, except for the non-replaceable battery. I like that IR camera dongle, wonder if there are any less expensive ones out there.

[@Mwwwwwwwwe]

Your datas belong to the CCP- Glory th XI Jing Poo

[@SiaVids]

It looks a great phone with a lot of functionality but I've recently had a lot of bad experience of unscrupulous Chinese sellers so there is no way I would be parting with that sort of money directly with a Chinese company.

[@arcadeuk]

Be aware that Doogee usually has delayed install malware. Usually 2-3 months after you start using it the phone will suddenly be riddled with Chinese adware that you will need to root the phone to remove

[@makak_zeleny]

You don't need a root to remove protected apps, you can do it using adb too

[@sandy_knight]

@Tusch 001 I was hoping the same thing but wouldn't reinstalling the OS mean reinstalling the hardware drivers? If so lets hope it works with non-proprietary/OS drivers!

[@JasonJrake]

Many Doogee will work on these finicky U.S. networks, so long as you set up the account with your SIM card in an “approved” device, then relocate it to your Doogee device.

[@PainterVierax]

TBF about the updates on western brands, I was disappointed to only have a couple of them during the 2years warranty period of my quite old Moto G3 osprey then the support dropped with no more OTA updates. Though the software was bug free. The large community is what made it worth with unofficial security support for 6-7 years (edit: and still a tiny bit ongoing despite the Lineage support drop a year ago).

[@bjackman16502]

I recently replaced the phone for one of our engineers with the Cat S62 Pro Rugged which is supported on AT&T in the US and also has the FLIR camera although no night vision. He has had the phone for about 3 months now and so far no complaints. He loves the FLIR camera... Also, if you look at the price of inexpensive FLIR cameras even if you don't want this as a cellphone - the price is competitive just as a FLIR camera with expandable storage, great battery life, and wifi capability.

[@RFC-3514]

14:55 - It's still a Bayer sensor, so the true RGB resolution is always 1/4 of the sensor resolution (because each pixel only captures R, G or B, they don't capture all three channels for every pixel). It's simpler and cheaper to make a camera with a 100 MP Bayer sensor than one with a 25 MP full RGB (ex., Foveon style) sensor or 3-chip array. You still get "the full resolution pictures", but 50% of the green values (and 75% of the red and blue values) are interpolated.

[@davidbwa]

I'd never heard of that brand. I like the infrared / night vision aspects. My last couple of phones have been Samsung G Power - unlocked - $200 ball park. Have been very happy with them but they lack some of the features you mentioned.

[@francistaylor1822]

Just FYI infrared Night vision as you only see temp gradients it wont be that helpful to see stuff at night

[@j.f.christ8421]

@@francistaylor1822 This phone has both.

[@francistaylor1822]

@@j.f.christ8421 I stand corrected, I missed that in the review !

[@marpintado]

Quite disappointed that you did not buy the pink one!!! Now seriously, is it easy is to change the battery? Greetings.

[@ssgeek4515]

Do like my Cat s42 No thermal imagery (s50 circa £500) but certainly is a tough phone My garage floor confirms this.great vid sir.

[@janemba42]

Marques Brownlee did a video on how much of an issue the battery degradation is with fast charging and modern smartphones, it's super interesting and worth the watch.

[@Sekir80]

I'm not following him, but this is useful, thanks for the info!

[@godslaughter]

I never liked the sleek, minimalist design of most modern smartphones so this industrial-looking monster is SO sexy. Like, wow, that's what I want to see. I will always prefer practicality and function over "good looks", even though this looks very nice to me (in this case we're gonna ignore it being so heavy and thicc). Kinda the reason why I like cargo pants so much - more pockets for rocks, coins, bones and bugs!

[@SinsBird]

This brand is on my blacklist since they were selling a phone full of malware both in the apps and system packages so it couldn't be removed in any way and they did nothing to correct this, the malware would come alive after a month or so and basically render the phone useless, it would become super slow, show ads all over the place, open web pages and constantly download additional malware or apps.

[@yodasscrotum]

Yes, awful company.bought a dooggee phone that died after a month,sent it away directly to dooggee,they lost the phone for over six months and after many emails to them I received the phone back 8 months after sending it for repair!

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

Funnily, the non standard Android was the reason I didn't purchase a Blackview. One good thing with my 98Pro is that it got a more standard Android 12, while the BV had it's own OS based on Android 11 (at time of purchase)

[@ThunderBassistJay]

Looks like a great smartphone with an outstanding battery capacity. 👍 Thanks for the review! 🙏

[@AttractionSpot]

Hey I just wanted to let you know for future reference that you pronounced the phone company wrong it's not Doo-gee or better yet not pronounced Doogie like as in Doogie Howser. It's pronounced Doo-jee like if you were to pronounce the letter "G" by itself.

[@grayrabbit2211]

Does anyone know what frequencies/bands this phone operates on? I didn't see anything in the Aliexpress listing. I'm in the USA and I know we do things differently here.

[@Torchizard]

Doogee's website says the following: FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28A/28B/66 TDD: B34/38/39/40/41 WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/6/8/19 CDMA: BC0/BC1/BC10 GSM: B2/3/5/8 Support EDGE/GPRS

[@hobbified]

@@Torchizard that looks pretty good then. That covers all of the major US carriers.

[@McTroyd]

The US networks you're looking for are Verizon (VER-eye-ZON) and Sprint, which I think is now part of T-Mobile US. They used a CDMA cellular network, which was completely incompatible with with the global GSM networks. I understand there is (was?) at least one CDMA network provider in Japan as well. This is less an issue nowadays -- Verizon and Sprint phased out CDMA with 3G, and T-Mobile has even shut down Sprint's 4G LTE. (It was redundant to their 4G network.) I suspect your phone will be generally compatible in the US, but only 4G -- the carriers have been quite aggressive at shutting down 2G and 3G.

[@Reman1975]

There's some REALLY nice phones been hitting the market lately, and this one initially looked interesting, but unfortunately, a quick Google revealed that, unlike some of the earlier Doogee phones, this one doesn't have a user replaceable battery. No one seems to be making a GOOD solid phone with a user replaceable battery now (Before anyone jumps in saying "Galaxy XCover6 Pro", or "Fairphone 4", the Samsung's got some horrendous reviews about it's stability, and the Fairphone seems to have a few quality control issues and the worst aftersales care known to man !). I heard that an EU directive was going to come in a couple years back to push manufacturers back in this direction, which meant that if they were forced to make them with easily replaceable batteries for the EU, ALL European markets would end up getting them, but so far, Zilch. :( Some say it's no biggy having built in batteries, but I've got a habit of keeping hold of phones I like until they don't fulfil some new technical need I have, and because of that I end up keeping the same phone for well over the 3 years it usually takes for the average Li-ion phone battery to become next to useless. A user replaceable battery is a deal breaker for me, so unfortunately, until someone comes out with a worthwhile phone that I can easily swap cells in, I'll be sticking with my 9 year old galaxy note 3's.

[@Sylvan_dB]

In the USA, AT&T should work and also T-Mobile. (Those are the primary GSM-based providers in the US.) Verizon and Sprint (which has been acquired by T-Mo so will be going away) are CDMA which is almost never found in the rest of the world. However as things move to LTE-only and 5 gen the CDMA is going away (LTE is based on GSM) and I expect these concerns to minimize. The other problem is the frequency bands used - different carriers own different bands and they use some bands in some areas and other bands elsewhere to avoid conflicts. Radios in phones are getting more flexible but still are limited in the bands they support. If a phone doesn't work on any of your carriers bands, no cellular for you. Or maybe it works on a few of your carriers bands, so will work in some places but not others.

[@PsiQ]

TRADITIONAL 48 MEGApixel camera.. traditional, that kiddo said..

[@mastweiler22]

Would love to try one for SAR, guess it depends on how much battery it eats in thermal mode... could help when searching a bramble thicket.

[@DanielJPole]

Can agree, Doogee customer service is non existent. However, the rugged phones are high quality, great price, virtually indestructible. Been running an S95PRO for over 2 years and only just bust the screen after any other phone would have failed a million times over. I said no more smart phones as if one lasted 3 months i was lucky, then got a Doogee Rugged.. would buy again..

[@micnolmadtube]

Regarding fast charging, that info is just plain wrong. Besides the fact that I have fast charged my phones since that feature got introduced OP7pro and now the Sony Xperia 1 III and they both have the same charge hold as the day I got them. So besides that, there have been science research that show that charging lithium is one of the things that build of that wall of resistance that lower the capacity. So by that merit it is better to fast charge. I just don't charge them to full but 80%. And before 25% they go to stamina mode and I stop using them except if an emergency.

[@firworks]

I really wish it would work on AT&T. I'm still limping along a CAT S61. It was a slow phone when it was new. Now 5 years later its near unbearable but I'm still hanging on because I use the thermal camera regularly. I recently bought one of those Infiray P2 Pros to see how annoying it would be to switch away from a phone with integrated thermal and the Infiray sensor blew me away with how great it is compared to the terrible integrated FLIR option on the CAT phone. However... having to always carry it with me in addition to my phone is a hassle vs just having it integrated and being able to pull it up at a moments notice. This phone looks like the perfect successor to the CAT phone but I'm on AT&T and I just know it wont work. My wife tried to get a Blackview phone working on the network and after battling with AT&T support for 2 weeks straight we had to return it. I'm really tempted to buy it off Amazon and just see what happens and return it if they refuse to allow it on the network. I think the odds there are slim to none though.

[@smartperson1]

It probably will work. I looked it up and this phone supports every AT&T 4G band except band 30. And I don't think band 30 is a major one for AT&T.

[@firworks]

@@smartperson1 It's not an issue of supported bands. They maintain a white list of devices allowed on the network and if your device isn't on that list it will be disconnected. KZbin doesn't let you post links in comments but look up AT&T BYOD White List and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

I assume you can't use one of the smaller providers that don't enforce a whitelist, like Mint Mobile?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@smartperson1 big mobile ISPs in the USA have device whitelists and will not allow devices that they have not "validated" on their network

[@dashcamandy2242]

@@marcogenovesi8570 Also, many brands have been blacklisted in the US due to suspicion of Chinese spying. And, as I discovered with a refurbished T-Mobile LG V60 ThinQ 5G Dual-Screen, even if the phone operates on all the AT&T bands, it might still be unusable on the network. So instead of the refurbished ThinQ ($380), I was forced to buy a used one that WAS usable on AT&T (extra expense of $300), and that phone has a bad charging port.

[@forgingluck]

Fortunately there's an expensive workaround for "whitelist" networks like AT&T here in the states - just buy the cheapest Samsung or whatever phone the carrier has that has the same sim format, activate the Sim card, and just pop it into the blackview or doogee. That's what I had to do with the blackview 8800 pro (activated the Sim on the free S10e AT&T sent me), and it works perfect 💯

[@Jamal_Tyrone]

My grandfather's Alcatel seems to have come with malware as standard, keeps repeatedly warning that "There are too many system garbage, you need to clean up" and no matter how many times you follow the supposed clean up route with it showing x amounts of cache files being deleted, it won't be long until exactly the same prompt comes up asking you to do the same thing. If I hold down my finger over the system message it says that the "File Manager" app is the one generating these so called clean up prompts; this only started happening after installing an official update to their android build malware infested operating system.

[@quanchyplimp]

T95 Android TV Boxes come preloaded with malware, so why not some non-descript device from China.

[@DatBoiOrly]

I'm still rocking my CAT s61 phone & i'll doubt that'll change anytime soon

[@keithharrison1453]

Excellent, in the unlikely event I ever encounter a politician, I can whip this out and thermally check to confirm it's a lizard.

[@GenUltra758]

i currently Daily drive a ulefone Armor 11T 5G and plan to upgrade to the latest one ulefone has (19 not 20 due top lack of thermal), its a shame that the infiray equiped phones of other brands do not make use of the visible light camera to do what flir calls MSX (overlay edges over the thermal image) which is very usefull for diagnosing small SMD parts. so far i am very pleased with the 11T

[@bigclivedotcom]

They do the overlay, but I tend to disable it because it's simply not needed at this resolution.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Nice thermal vision diagnostic device. No shorted MLCC will escape! :)

[@IgnoreMyChan]

What's that Thermal Cameral Dongle you showed at 12:45? Is that a recommendation worth too?

[@bradley9856]

thats awesome, I'm getting one for myself. If that thing had Lidar it would be out of this world

[@11seconds26]

Hi can you please test does magnetic charging cables 🤔

[@francistaylor1822]

This phone looks a lot like my Ulefone Armor 9 Pro (and on checking quite similar spec wise though the Ulefone is much older) that I bought a few years ago (That also has IR camera) ive since moved to a Pixel 7 Pro, but keep this camera around due to the IR camera which is really handy to have. One thing about the ulefone phone that is really cool, is that its held together by screws, replacing the worn USB socket on it merely involved unscrewing and replacing board - first time I have ever seen something in a phone. Is the dogee similar tin that respect? EDIT: Went over the phone slowly and you can see screws in the side panel at 8:32 so this may be easily user repairable as well!

[@jort93z]

No headphone jack, which is quite unfortunate. But I guess helps with waterproofing.

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

Yeah, this and the horrendous cost of importing it to my country made me strike off the potential phones list pretty much immediately, as neat as a thermal and IR camera would've been. And so the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro is back at the top of the "potential-phones-to-get" list for me. It doesn't have any fancy cameras, but 5G, headphone jack, dual-sim AND microSD (not shared), removable battery, decent resolution non-AMOLED screen (ie won't burn in), dex support and a barometer (of all things). Strange to think that all of this comes from Samsung and isn't a half-decade old device

[@Rx7man]

I have the S97 pro, no thermal imagine but had a headphone jack, been really happy with it after a year and a half. Same little cover that covers the USB covers the headphone jack as well.. I thought for sure that was going to be the first thing to break but it hasn't yet!

[@TheUfonsw]

DONT BUY IT , Software problems, scree freezing,camera is rubbish ,

[@bigclivedotcom]

I've not had those issues.

[@brianjohnson5789]

I like stereo speakers, for me it makes a big difference, playing music etc.

[@Alacritous]

I had a Doogee X5 Max Pro that I bought in 2016 that had a locked launcher and spyware. I was not impressed.

[@netzwerkman]

Appreciate these honest and no-shill reviews. Ended up with a BV9900 Pro two years ago after seeing a mates one who bought by way of your review. The battery capacity in that has started to diminish and I was really struggling to figure out what to replace it with. There's no way I was going back to not having a thermal camera in my pocket or a phone that needs TLC. Problem solved.

[@turboconqueringmegaeagle9006]

Mine is over 2 years old now, it's the 3rd doogee I've had, 1st was a basic tough phone, second was a semi-tough flagship that had detachable speaker and battery but wasn't tough enough and now this peach which has been stellar, factory/workshop/idiot proof with the camera lenses recessed so are not all scratched to buggery.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Thanks Clive, now even more pressure for me to buy a thermal camera 🤣 I have an IR modified DSLR but the extended range & false colour the thermal cameras gives is very tempting. Will have to find the spudger and pry some coins out of the money box

[@Ni5ei]

A DSLR (or any digital camera) modified for Infrared is completely different than a thermal cam. You can't use them for thermal imaging and they're only suitable for artistic use. I'm into Infrared photography myself and have modified multiple camera's. It's awesome but not so much from a technical point of view.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

@@Ni5ei Thanks, I probably should have made it clearer that the IR camera was not delivering across the thermal range - not that I got it for that purpose I did get it for photography effects 😎

[@seanet1310]

Now im an office based engineer, i missed my thermal imageing cameras. Looks like a great phone in general for the use case. I worry about the general photo quality, my only Helios soc expernece was woefull in photo and video quality. Dont need flagship but do need very useable photos and videos of the family etc. Despite working in the RF industry, I can take or leave 5G

[@reedvending2384]

i have the s88+ wifi keeps disconnecting from factory, gps isnt good on the phone map goes crazy, camera is meh and videos usually play in 480. The 10000 mah battery is fantastic, i can go like 3 days without charging it, watching videos on yt a lot, it can wireless charge another phone if need be. It has been a tough tough phone and i bought another for a back up because the screen is starting to separate after a few years due to damage on the side of the metal frame around the screen.

[@FerdinandFake]

Same on my s88pro. Wifi and gps are garbage, but the battery lasts forever and the case can take a beating

[@tarakivu8861]

@@stoicgreg Which is bullshit and should be fixed in software

[@garyphillips7993]

Nice impartial review 👍 I’ve been using a Doogee Armor X8 for the last 3 years, it’s taken everything I’ve thrown at it and works a charm. I still have the original screen protector on it - complete with a few cracks & scratches. I agree with the charging point being a tad fiddly, sadly the X8 doesn’t have wireless charging. Battery life on the X8 is easily 2 days with my use. I’m now looking at updating it as it has Android 10 that has just fallen out of support. I’ll pop the 98 on the list of possibles.

[@Ruby_Witch]

What made you want to upgrade from your previous Doogee phone to this one? Is the thermal imaging camera significantly better or are there some other features that you really wanted on the new version?

[@mikeselectricstuff]

The high resolution and high framerate of the Infiray core makes it massively more useful

[@medienmond]

how is the nightvision working? is it just a normal camera without ir filter or a dedicated white on black nightvision like a sniper has on His gunsight?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Normal camera without filter.

[@bradmeekakasilvertopflyer]

You and I have a KZbin brother that will probably collaborate with you on that phone, Louis Rossman Loves this stuff

[@mikehibbett3301]

Jeez this is great. What's it like for reparability? specifically battery and screen? Is it good for PCB hotspot work? 5G SA? Asking this before finishing the video cause I'm so excited :)

[@mikehibbett3301]

How can they do this at such a low price?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The premium phones in the UK market have very inflated status-prices.

[@TedCornish]

£350 what a bargain 👍👍. That’s my new phone sorted. Thanks Clive

[@henrykim6086]

It is good review sir! Is it yours also volume button is rattle? Mine does it is just got brand new one I'm not sure it is normal or not. If you don't mind can you check yours thanks!

[@bigclivedotcom]

Mine doesn't seem to rattle.

[@ForTheBirbs]

I ordered one as soon as I saw your thumbnail before seeing video as I miss having a thermal camera. Around $500AU on May 4th

[@agentvx8320]

I bought one specifically because of this video and I love it. The thermal camera and price tag even caught the attention of my dad, who is a die hard iPhone fan.

[@mysteriousbigboy6744]

It would be fascinating to push this device to the max. Could you do a test to find out the maximum amount of time it can go in Thermal Video Capture and how many mAh it consumes ? Does it shut down due to device overheating after some time and if so, after how much time ? Ambient temperature, etc. Also, Would a mirror be able to capture its own thermal footprint by reflection ? Icing on the cake, sharing the file size. Damn, so many questions... Details like these rarely get named by reviewers! YOu are the boss, CLive.

[@chriswilson4614]

I'm glad you mentioned Motorola because I've just bought a Motorola z4 and the amount of Moto mods you can get for it is incredible . LED projector. Hasselblad true zoom camera. 360 camera. Magnetic snap-on power Banks. Alexa speaker. Zero ink printer. JBL speakers. I'm over the moment and I know it's got nothing to do with your brilliant description of the doogee phone but I just thought I would mention it

[@arctic_otter]

As far as 5G goes, given its shorter range, will they ever shut off 4G completely? Especially for rural areas I wonder how they would rollout coverage for 5G

[@TheRailroad99]

I highly doubt. At least not in the next 5-10 years. Also because there are still LOTS of 4G only phones out there

[@AlwaysFaxkenCashinHandMate]

I live in the middle of the woods (more or less) and it’s non existent. 4g’s bad as it is. 3G only comes up with a vodaphone sim and that’s a token gesture so they don’t technically need to refund it. P.s I’m in the uk, it’s not a country the size of Canada, there’s almost no excuse 😂

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

Range repends on the band. 5G also has a so called "coverage" band (in my part of the world, that's 700 Mhz) which is 5G in name only.

[@JordanReese]

​@@povilasstaniulis9484 it's 5g in signalling, it's just not high speed.

[@Raysnature]

Interestingly enough there now appears to be better 5G on Exmoor than 4G. EE have a 5G presence in Porlock and Barnstaple which my partner's new phone can see in the most unlikely places. My phone, which is with another provider, gives up just about anywhere on top.

[@Sekir80]

Yeah, great stuff! I've bought this as well to satisfy my desire for a thermal imager, looking for a use case. But interestingly, as soon as I bought it I found I use it almost daily! Checking the resistors in the battery tester? No problem. Looking for a bad connection on my crocodile clips making them heat up? Oh, yeah, found them (replaced them today). Even imaging the food from the microwave to see if it's heated up evenly or not! Hint, there's a big differential between the insides and outsides of a meat loaf. Edit: what I really love about the thermal imager is the resolution. Previously, every phone/heat camera needed to have the optical mixed to the thermal image, because the FLIR has 80x60 resolution and you can't see shit. With 256x192 I don't need the mixed mode because I can see in thermal sharp enough. To credit FLIR and newer phones they started using the Lepton 3.5 camera with 160x120 resolution. Still shit, but way better than the Lepton 2.5.

[@getyerspn]

Same here with the finger print readers..they don't work with my fingers ..my fingers are always so scored up or rubbed smooth from stripping cables ...my work tried finger print readers..they lasted 1 week as over half of the engineering department couldn't use them...none of my phones / laptops will reliably read any of my fingers.

[@general0ne]

My carrier is AT&T in the US... This looks awesome, but guess I'll have to wait for a different one. 🙄 It's a shame that it's not about 2/3 the size. I hate huge phones. If they'd make a modern phone that was the size of the original Motorola Milestone (Droid I), I would buy it in an instant, regardless of the price.

[@FoxoBread]

Seeing as it runs on a generic MediaTek processor, the software side of things isn't too big of a concern and in fact is quite favorable for third-party ROMs and such.

[@d.t.4523]

I was on call today, so I missed the stream. However, my S98 Pro arrived yesterday. Thanks for the review. Cheers!

[@Breakfast_and_Bullets]

I had to laugh when you said "ver-ih-zohn," it's pronounced "verr-eye-zun." It never occurred to me that it could be mispronounced by non-US folks.

[@dashcamandy2242]

This is not available in United States. Well, you can probably buy it, but because it's made in China it's likely blocked from use by all carriers. Found this out the hard way with my Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro. Fantastic phone, it allows you to delete all bloatware, screen is so sensitive you can be a hair's breadth away from the screen and it picks up your touch, the display itself has vivid colors and amazing contrast, plenty of internal storage (and supports high-capacity microSD cards), QuickCharge and NFC support, a delight to use (a bit heavy, but it has a nice fat battery to justify the weight). Completely blocked from cellular use in the United States because Xiaomi. Fingerprint recognition is FAR better than my LG ThinQ V60 5G phone, which uses the screen (and the Redmi uses a real fingerprint sensor, not the fake ones on most Chinese phones that will respond to every finger - I've tested it extensively). Scrolling from page to page on the home screen is the most fluid I have ever seen in a mobile phone. It shoots great photos and video, but thanks to the ban, I can only use it on WiFi. It's a $300 alarm clock in front of my PC screen monitor, since I can't use it away from home. But a damn nice alarm clock it is!

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

is the Redmi Note 8 Pro *that* different from my Redmi Note 8T? it is filled to the brim with bloatware that you *can't* uninstall (or even deactivate), and for half the "system" settings you need to have a mi login and grant the apps permission to _way_ more things than they have any right to (why does the themes app want access to my phonebook and sms and be allowed to send and receive both?!). Buying this thing as a sidegrade to my much older Moto Z Play was more of a downgrade, as it's good on paper (specs etc) but abysmal in terms of build and component quality, with the addition of aforementioned very questionable software... Sarcastically great to know that I would've been essentially unable to use it on a trip to the US and be cut off from contacting friends and family as well... having devices blocked on all carriers is just incredibly dumb, like a lot of things in the US

[@oldblueshirtguy]

Do they still block it even with a roaming SIM? Maybe a Canadian or UK SIM would give it some extra functionality?

[@Lion_McLionhead]

Did the Chinese discover the Doobie brothers & decide it was a good word for a phone?

[@weerobot]

Power Armour 18T with Thermal here..

[@magar6247]

There's something sweet about printing out the photos instead of showing them on screen

[@Farm_fab]

For those that live in the States, there are no carriers that have approved this phone on their network. While it uses the same frequency as some domestic services, none of those companies have made any attempts to promote this or other independent manufacturers.

[@oldblueshirtguy]

Strange that SIM only is not being aggressively promoted by the US networks in the same way as it is elsewhere. You would think that having customers that are effectively 100% profit from acquisition, rather than being a loss for the first year or two while a subsidised phone is paid off, would be an incentive for them to move into the 21st century.

[@LewinEdwards]

The fast-updating IR camera is also considered a military item in the US and getting them across the border is complex. 9fps is the upper limit for unrestricted shipping.

[@stepheneyles2198]

I would buy it for the "Dual Spectrum Fusion Algorithm" it mentions on the product page!! Just the thing to impress friends with!

[@lyfandeth]

Verizon is the oddball carrier in the US. However, both Verizon and AT&T scan each line every night. If your phone's IMEI (model number) is not on their supported list, they may refuse to provide service.

[@dashcamandy2242]

"Hi, it's AT&T. We're sorry, but the phone you recently tried to use will not work on our network. Don't worry, make a call now to any number and it will be redirected to an AT&T representative to help you." To help you buy another phone, that is.

[@oldblueshirtguy]

How does that work for roaming users and what's the (lack of) logic behind it? Surely if a phone has a valid IMEI and SIM the network has an incentive to provide access as that's a valid customer spending money who they'd be forcing to a competitor.

[@edwardbrady2211]

It looks nice and may work well but not in the USA it's only 4g and not compatible with US carriers.

[@SianaGearz]

I've had Doogee Valencia DG800 I think it is in 2014. Processor sleep didn't work and the PSU exploded after a few weeks of use. Autopsy of the PSU showed it to be usual eBay $1 garbage except officially branded by them. There's no attempt at isolation primary to secondary even hinted at on the PCB, actual death trap. Got it from one of their official resellers from an EU local warehouse. Forgot which. Anyway guess what I think of this company now. As to malware, that happened. I have seen the Acer Liquid bundled app auto install "recommended games", one of which charged me 10€ via premium MMS without me even opening it. It happened within an hour of me activating the phone, so I didn't have time to uninstall the junk yet. If that's not malware, I don't know what is. The malicious "game" was installed from Google Play Store but still. I never got to approve it and I was not presented with granting it any permissions. A well known case used to be here that Gigaset, a "German" brand licensed from Siemens, had a shady company in China manage their firmware updates which also resulted in actual malware being installed. Quite unlikely to be intentional on the part of most businesses involved, but upon investigation it was obvious just how deeply deeply incompetent this subcontractor is, horrendous. So yes actual malware and actually hazardous product is absolutely a thing that happens when you deal with third rate brands.

[@edgeeffect]

Thinking of Samsung, there MAY not be much in the way of actual malware... but there's certainly way too much in the way of apps you don't want, will never use, but aren't allowed to uninstall. Maybe I've been watching too much diodegonewild, but on reading the title of this video, I read "dodgy S98 review". pronounced "doooooh-geeeeee" :D :D :D

[@crabmansteve6844]

Thats a really nice phone, especially at their price point, but I'm incredibly apprehensive to buy anything like a phone from China. Ill buy things with certain Chinese sourced materials, but fully assembled tech is a no-go for me. And yes this does complicate quite a few things, but usually I can find a Japanese, Korean, German, USA or Mexican made product anyway. I'll buy Taiwanese (TSMC being the big one) but no mainland Chinese finished products.

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Matt, over on Schrodingers Box, demonstrates how he quickly tracked down a parasitic draw on a car battery, and a bad coil-pack, using a similar piece of kit to Clive.

[@brad885]

I have the CAT s62 pro. Works well for what I need. Unfortunately, I live in the US, where 90% of ohones don't work on the major carriers because of device whitelists.

[@v6hilux]

Flat USB cables (your red one) are a disaster - my DJI good quality one failed after not much use with using to charge a mobile phone on my desk!

[@Alfadrottning86]

Interesting .. from what i knew (as in, what most youtubers say about those things) .. Doogee was described as a fake phone, cheap Chinese scam. Makes me surprised indeed that maybe those youtubers misunderstood it and expeced some premium fashion iphone brand

[@grahamleiper1538]

Am on my second Ulefone Armor phone (microphone died on my first one after a couple of years). Generally just buy from Amazon these days for the initial warranty if there's a problem out of the box. First was bought before that was possible. Next one will have FLIR but I don't want too big as current 6.2" screen one barely fits the charging bay in my car. (First world problems) The good thing about most of the "rugged" Chinese phones is untweaked Android and dual SIMs (I worked overseas a lot). Amazing what you can get for £200-300.

[@grumpyhale821]

I'm using the Doogee S98, has a better camera but no thermal camera. I'm exchanging for the S98 PRO soon hopefully.

[@ramrod126]

Well, this just pissed me off because I just spent around the same money on a Samsung A53. I would have much rather had this.

[@InssiAjaton]

About the American (and at least AT&T) compatibility issue - I once had a Nokia Communicator that was imported from the UK. Worked fine where I live. But then I was sent to a customer site in Southern Illinois and could not make or receive calls. As staying in contact with my employer was a key need, I went to a shop where I tried a Blackberry phone with my AT&T SIM card and it worked. So I bought it. Emergency avoided. On my way back, I had a lengthy wait in Atlanta. You may have heard a saying: In South, it does not matter whether you are going to Heaven, or Hell, you have to change planes in Atlanta... Well, I decided to try my Communicator again. And it worked. Further study indicated that the American frequency bands for GMS extend lower than the European ones, and it so happens that the Southern Illinois area allocation at least for AT&T cell phones was just in that lower range and thereby out of reach with my European Communicator. I still have my old Communicator that operated in 2G and 3G, but have since used a Nokia 6.1 with 4G capabilities, until AT&T claimed that my phone was only supporting 3G (apparently old archive info about the long since retired Communicator) that the were dropping last year, along with the introduction of 5G. So now I have a Samsung S22, purchased in last December. However, immediately after my purchase, Samsung started bombarding me with a request to upgrade to S23. Well, I don't, because the S23 as well as new 5G capable Nokia (HMD) phones are too big for my shirt pocket. The S22 is the same size as my Nokia 6.1 and my shirt pocket. Consider that a funny new make or break compatibility criteria!

[@dimitar4y]

Power Tool Lithium batteries get smash charged at 2-10C, as in 5Ah battery packs (18v/5S) gets charged in 30 minutes. And they last around 8-10 years with minimal loss of capacity. Fast charging isn't the issue. It's the batteries in smartphones are *DESIGNED* to fail early. Something Apple gets sued for (and loses) every new phone release. They've designed the iPhone to intentionally cook, overcharge and overdischarge the battery to kill the capacity and I think it even has an intentional discharge resistor on-board. Several times I've replaced my parents' iPhone batteries and despite the battery being new and quality from reliable supplier, the phone starts getting warm just like the old battery, with low capacity. But the battery externally tests with normal capacity.

[@christopherdesbaux5950]

I'm using a Ulefone Power Armour 13. It has a 13200 mAh battery. Waterproof and rugged. Best phone I've ever had, because it solves my actual problems, flat batterys and broken screens. Just dont drop it on your foot 😭

[@snakezdewiggle6084]

Sounds like it's "the bees knees", especially if it has a Proper Scientific Calculator on board. Just remember that everything looks smaller than actual, in Clive's bear paws...💪✋ Anywho, never had a phone, and never will. ;)

[@jimmytvfclassic]

I had a Doogee once. Very good phone. Cost me 70€ back in 2015 i think it was. After a year and a half, the battery started to not charge properly and starting to inflate. I broke the screen, maybe the fall damage did broke one of the cells or something. The game performance was very good. The call volume not so good, and it got like a sort of a touch gesture at the back that was a good gizmo, but never really used it. Enjoy it!

[@dsfdfssqdfsqfdfqsd4235]

It's an IPS tho, not amoled (don't remember if you said it) + the processor is slow by new standards = 330k at ANTUTU, like a 5yo oneplus 6 (which is very fast compared to other phones from the era), if it had a better processor, which could've meant better lifetime as a fast phone, i would've bought it.

[@SarahC2]

The price alone is fantastic! My HT-A2 thermal camera (320*240, -20 to 300c) cost just a little bit less than this entire phone! (256x192, -?? to 500c!) the thermal resolutions aren't much different either - and the HT-A2 only takes pictures, no video, and no "smart images" for processing later. I think I might be getting this phone when my current one dies.

[@Sekir80]

The thermal range info was a bit misleading here. He said -15 to 550. If I remember correctly it goes down to -30, but that isn't the point here. This device has 2 modes, one from -30 to 80 (IIRC), and a higher one from 80-550. So, it's not ONE -30 to 550. If you care about this tidbit.

[@bengraham3707]

Wow this phone is only $472AUD, which is just an amazingly cheap price for such a phone. Thanks for this review!

[@KarldorisLambley]

the older i get , the more mobiles disinterest me. i used to think things like "the new note5 comes out soon, ill get a dreadful contract so i may have one". now i just use a google one , it is mid range for price and features, comes in a lovely green colour but it bores me. however i just got a GPO 706, with a slight crack 'neath the cradle for 20 quid! im so looking forward to "bring-bring,bring-bring". i'll make sure to enjoy it before the bastards turn off 'proper' phone service. it would appear i have become a reactionary, miserable, old bugger. sorry. cheerio.

[@chillybrit2334]

Ref 5G in UK. Samsung A34 on either Voda or Three network, where 5G is available it speed tests at 100 - 135Mbps. Pretty impressive for cellular from some distant mast. But yep, coverage is crap and its ability to penetrate inside buildings is non-existent.