Doogee S88 Pro review

Android 10 with Doogee topping

The Doogee S88 Pro comes with Android 10 out of the box. The company says it is a pure version of Android, but it's not really. Still, the Doogee launcher is mostly clutter-free, so it does remind us of the vanilla Android.

The home screen, lock screen, notification shade, and the recent apps menu look like those from the stock Android, minus the icons.

Android OS on Doogee S88 Pro

Looking deeper into the Settings menu reveals the changes that Doogee has made - there are Emergency Rescue entries, Custom Key configuration, DuraSpeed acceleration, and various gestures, among others.

You can assign two different actions on the Custom key - one upon the short press, another one - on long press. Emergency Rescue allows you to set up quick actions and emergency contacts for when you need help.

The Breathing Light Switch (a.k.a. The Iron Man eyes) settings are also here. The LEDs are RGB, but most of the time, you will see them flashing blue (for incoming calls or missed notifications). Red comes for a low or charging battery, and green - for when the battery is fully charged.

Various settings

There is no app drawer available on the S88 Pro, but if it's a must - there are plenty of custom launchers.

The app package is pretty straight-forward. The default Android apps are pre-installed, so you have a Photos app, the YouTube players, and a file manager. There is also an FM radio app by Doogee, a custom Basic Service app, and a Toolbox app.

The Basic Service app is what's usually called a Phone manager on other phones - it cleans your memory and offers advanced power, app, and traffic managers.

The Toolbox contains a compass and sound meter (uses the mic), protractor, AR level for paintings, Height meter, Bubble level, and Plumb bob.

Basic Service • Basic Service • Toolbox

It's a good thing that there are no ads across the UI whatsoever, so you won't be bothered by unwanted spam here and there. And that pretty much covers the Doogee S88 Pro software package.

Performance and benchmarks

The Doogee S88 Pro is powered by the Helio P70 chipset. It has an octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A73 cores at 2.1GHz, and 4x Cortex-A53 cores which are running at 2.0GHz.

The GPU is a tri-core Mali-G72 MP3.

The Doogee S88 Pro is available in a single memory configuration - 6GB RAM with 128GB storage.

We ran some benchmarks, and they are far from impressive. The Doogee is a weaker performer than the Ulefone Armor 9 (and its Helio P90 chip), though the performance gap isn't that big.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme 7
  292828
• Redmi Note 9S
  254000
• Redmi Note 9
  200414
• Ulefone Armor 9
  197000
• Realme 7i
  172933
• Doogee S88 Pro
  168125
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  107189

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 9S
  1785
• Realme 7
  1681
• Ulefone Armor 9
  1498
• Doogee S88 Pro
  1447
• Realme 7i
  1318
• Redmi Note 9
  1292
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1034

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 9S
  570
• Realme 7
  536
• Ulefone Armor 9
  401
• Redmi Note 9
  361
• Realme 7i
  312
• Doogee S88 Pro
  311
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  169

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Realme 7
  34
• Redmi Note 9S
  30
• Ulefone Armor 9
  19
• Doogee S88 Pro
  14
• Realme 7i
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  7.7

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 7
  28
• Redmi Note 9S
  26
• Realme 7i
  25
• Ulefone Armor 9
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  13
• Doogee S88 Pro
  12

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Realme 7
  20
• Redmi Note 9S
  18
• Doogee S88 Pro
  8.6
• Ulefone Armor 9
  7.4
• Realme 7i
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.3

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 7
  17
• Redmi Note 9S
  15
• Realme 7i
  13
• Doogee S88 Pro
  7.9
• Ulefone Armor 9
  7.9
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  5

The phone runs smoothly and won't overheat ever. We ran the 3DMark stress test, and the Doogee S88 Pro scored 98% stability.

This surely isn't the fastest phone even for its class, and you may feel it's a bit sluggish at times - there is no lag or stutters, just slowness. But nobody will be eyeing it for its performance anyway.