Doogee F1 Turbo Mini
Like Elephone (opposite), Doogee is another new name to us, but popular outside the UK. Its F1 Turbo Mini smartphone is a supersleek, super-budget 4G phone. It’s a grey market phone (see our feature on page 96) supplied to us by Coolicool.com.
The F1 has a very nice design for such a budget handset. The screen bezels are virtually non-existent, and where we would normally expect to find a chunky chassis the phone is just 8mm thick. With a 4.5in screen the Turbo Mini is very easy to hold and use in a single hand, and at 112g it’s incredibly light, too.
The slightly curved rear aids its fit in the hand, and the dimpled back panel – not unlike that seen in Samsung Galaxy phones – improves grip. It’s much less plasticky in its appearance than other budget phones, such as the EE Kestrel, with a glass front, plastic rear and a metal chassis that’s visible from the side.
The F1 feels reasonably tough, but the removable rear does mean it rattles somewhat when handled. Prise off this panel and you’ll find dual-SIM slots (one full size, one micro), plus a removable 2000mAh lithium-ion battery and a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB.
The screen is identical to that seen on the Kestrel: a 4.5in HD IPS panel with a 960x540 resolution that equates to 245ppi. Colours and viewing angles are good too, which is important when you consider that you’re likely to want to stream video over 4G. It’s not the best screen we’ve ever seen but it’s more than acceptable, given the price.
Another area in which the Doogee improves on the Kestrel is in performance. The Doogee F1 is equipped with a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6732 quad-core 64-bit processor and 1GB of RAM. This is not what we might consider a speed demon, but it’s very capable when you consider how little it costs.
Storage is just 8GB, but that’s already better than the 4GB we often see in budget phones. The Doogee also has a microSD card slot that accepts up to 64GB.
The fact this phone supports 4G is amazing, given the price. It’s the cheapest 4G phone we’ve tested. If you’re buying the F1 in the UK, though, ensure it is compatible with your network. The Doogee supports 850/900/1800/1900MHz 2G, 850/900/1900/2100MHz 3G, and LTE bands 1/3/7/20 800/2100/1800/2600MHz. With a 4G connection Doogee claims it can offer up to 150Mb/s.
As we mentioned earlier, the Turbo Mini is also a dual-SIM phone. This will appeal to many users who want to combine business and home SIMs in a single handset.
Other connectivity options include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and something called HotKnot, which is a short-range wireless file-transfer protocol that is in essence MediaTek’s answer to NFC.
At the front of the Doogee F1 Turbo Mini is a 5Mp selfie or video-chat camera. Within the main Camera app there’s a Beauty Face mode that offers a live preview with a slider, allowing you to reduce wrinkles or (oddly) whiten your face.
Switch to CameraBox and you can trigger selfies with a smile or V sign. You can apply beautifying effects in real-time, and there’s also an age judge mode that examines your pose and tells you how old you look. After you’ve taken a selfie you can apply make-up, though some of the effects are oriental-looking.
At the rear is an 8Mp camera with an HDR mode, face detection, smile shot, a 40-picture burst mode and more. It supports panorama, picture-in-picture, motion-tracking, multiple-beauty face, multi-angle shots and more.
The Doogee runs the latest version of Android KitKat (4.4.4) and supports FOTA updates. The software is largely standard KitKat, with a few additions such as Music and Video apps and the aforementioned CameraBox. Go Keyboard is also preinstalled, and the Doogee supports some smart gestures. Examples include threefinger screenshots, two-finger volume and a double-tap of the Home button to lock the screen from any menu.
Privacy options include an app lock feature that lets you lock down specific parts of the phone from unwanted access, plus a Visitor mode, which hides away your pictures, texts and call logs.
The F1 Turbo Mini is fitted with a 2000mAh battery that, given the low-power screen and hardware, is more generous than it might sound. In our tests, after a working day’s typical use, the battery had 60 percent remaining, suggesting it’ll last at least a full day away from the mains and perhaps a little more depending on your usage.
The F1 also has an Ultra power saving mode that can shut down non-essential apps to keep things going as long as possible.
Verdict
We’re impressed by the Doogee F1. It’s better-looking and more powerful than any budget phone has any right to be.