Doogee has been on a bit of a hot streak lately. Becoming a Villarreal sponsor and with their recent habit of frequently releasing new phones, they are making the old school China brands such as Jiayu look a bit dinosaur.
The recently released Doogee Dagger DG550 has been one of the most solid China phones I have reviewed in recent history. Every time the Dagger is removed from my pocket brings some pleasure. Really a great looking phone and super stable OS.
Now comes the successor to the DG300 Voyager – the Doogee DG310 Voyager 2. Let us have a look at what it will offer.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review frequency support
I wanted to address this right off the bat. There seems to be an excellent trend starting. The THL T11 and iNew V8 were released with 850/1900/2100 and according to official specs, the Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 will be joining the bunch as a phone which will be compatible everywhere in the USA with 3G on AT&T and AT&T MVNOs and many T-Mobile areas as well.
I find it an interesting move given that they have put their lot in with Villarreal, and while it is a disappointment they have not included 900 to cover the outside city areas in Europe, I am very pleased to see the DG310 released with the possibility of full 3G support in the Americas.
The GSM as par for the course will be quad-band 850/900/1800/1900.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review OS
The Doogee DG310 per specifications is to come with Android KitKat 4.4. The recently released Doogee DG550 was also reportedly to come with KitKat, but it disappointed many there by coming with Jelly Bean 4.2.2.
The news coming down the pipe is that Doogee will be releasing an update for their current popular phones, and that all new Doogee phone models will come with KitKat. Whether the DG310 Voyager 2 will actually have 4.4 and whether these updates will be coming as rumored remains to be seen.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review RAM, storage and SoC
The SoC will be the quad core MT6582.
The Voyager 2 will come with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. 1GB RAM is mainstream and easily enough to run Android smoothly. One would think 8GB ROM would immediately turn customers off, but the phone does support an external SD up to 32GB, and the best part about this phone is in the title – the price.
You can purchase this phone from DX.COM for only $88.88 (no coupon code needed, just click this link)
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review camera
According to the specification sheet I have received, the camera in the DG310 will be 2mp for rear and .3 for front. Interpolated up to 5mp for rear and 1.3 for front.
As with the 8GB storage, one might be tempted to shun the DG310 without a further glance, but the trick of this pony lies in its price, and as I have reiterated several times, 2mp is more than enough for electronic sharing via Facebook, email etc. 2mp is the Google “standard” for uploading to G+, and Facebook tends to limit the size of pictures to under 1MP.
Am I saying a 2mp camera is great? No. But unless you have a plan to print posters or do heavy cropping, it should prove more than adequate.
As well, it is also important to remember that often phones that claim “13mp” and even “8mp” are actually 5mp or smaller sensors.
One interesting feature of the camera is the dual LED flash which is somewhat of a rarity in China brand phones.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review LCD
The LCD on the DG310 is a mixed bag. I like the size of 5.0″. This is about right for most people. Also the display is IPS and as reported in the official spec sheet made by LG, so the quality should be there.
The main issue that some may have with the display is the 854*480 FWVGA resolution which gives a ppi of 197. The IPS LG quality should still have it bright and with excellent angles, but those hoping for retina will be disappointed.
For those wondering what 197 will look like, it should be approximately the same quality as looking at a standard 14″ 720p LCD (110ppi), but because the phone is normally held about half the distance from your face as you would normally sit in front of laptop to type, what your eyes resolve will be somewhat similar. Not great, but could not be considered terrible either.
The bonuses of a lower resolution is longer battery life and better game performance.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review battery
The battery in the DG310 will be 2200mA. This is slightly above the par of 2000mA on a 5.0″ China brand phone, and should be enough to give standard onscreen WiFi browsing, chatting and flipping around use of about 5-6 hours.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review sensors and special
The Doogee DG310 will have GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, light sensor, gravity sensor, proximity sensor and gesture sensing.
According to Doogee, the phone will have tap screen to wake from sleep, and if I am interpreting the Dooglish correctly, the DG310 will also support gestures from sleep to open the camera, open the dialer, start music and start video.
OTG is included and a nice bonus.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review design style
The DG310 will be coming in “pearl white” and “dark black “. The corners are rounded, though not so much as to turn me off, and reminiscent of recently released Samsung phones. Dimensions will be 146.6*73*7.9mm.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review price point and conclusion
While the camera and resolution could use a big bump, and the storage a bit on the skimp side. The beauty of this phone lies its price – $88. With 720p, 16GB and a 13mp camera the phone simply could not be released at this price.
Frankly, at $88, the price is nothing short of astounding and it is amazing what Doogee was able to cram in there and still [hopefully] make some sort of profit.
I do believe there is a market for a phone with lower storage and lower camera MP count, and assuming the OS is solid and the build proper, I count the DG310 Voyager 2 as a very smart move from Doogee. This is a phone that if lost, broken or stolen, while may be a minor inconvenience, is not going to break the bank or the heart if such a calamity should occur.
You can purchase this phone from DX.COM for only $88.88 (no coupon code needed, just click this link)
When considering the cost, the inclusion of 1GB RAM, MT6582 (as opposed to MT6572), LG IPS 5.0″ LCD, OTG, standard sensor array and 1900MHz WCDMA in a company known to release very decent phones, makes this sub-$90 phone a very unique and beyond tempting purchase.
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