I must admit, I did not expect much from the Doogee DG310 Voyager 2. An $88 phone with 480p resolution? Still, I was intrigued and am glad I took the chance to review this little gem.
Doogee DG310 Voyager 2 review LCD
Let’s get this out of the way straight off the bat. 480p on a 5.0″ display will not give you anywhere near retina. We are looking at a ppi of 197. As mentioned in the specification review, that is about what a typical consumer 14″ 720p (1366×768) laptop display looks like in terms of clarity if you are viewing the displays from a ‘typical’ distance, but perhaps more pleasant on the DG310, as it is IPS and quite bright.
I tested the phone in daylight and there was no problems seeing the screen, as well the auto-brightness function was working no problems.
From tops, bottoms and sides the clarity, color and contrast remain true. There is some change at extreme diagonals, though I’m fairly sure nobody uses their phone while viewing from extreme diagonal angles, or extreme angles at all for that matter. It is a big plus on the scorecards in regards to what Doogee has done here with the 310 by packing a strong IPS LCD into an $88 package.
Using the DG310 in terms of display is not at all unpleasant due to it’s brightness, clarity and lack of ‘ghost’ effect when viewing landscape. If you have ever tried to watch a movie in landscape on mediocre TN panel display, you will know what I’m talking about.
There are also benefits to performance and battery life when the SoC is pushing less pixels, so 480p can’t be considered all bad.
DG310 Voyager 2 review battery
Battery life on the Voyager 2 is very good for a 2000mA battery. The full testing has not been completed, but there is no excessive unexplained drain and the phone is deep sleeping without issue. Based on my use so far, the phone should deliver 5 hours of onscreen time with standard use, that is minimal video watching and gaming.
You can purchase this phone from DX.COM for only $89.99 (no coupon code needed, just click this link)
DG310 Voyager 2 review design
The design of the DG310 is very Samsung 5ish in appearance, complete with a dimpled back and very Samsungish corners. It doesn’t look bad, but clearly they were aiming for the mainstream crowd with the looks of the DG310. Not a bad thing, and depends entirely on your tastes. For me, it looks and feels far better than the typical glossy backs that comes on many phones.
DG310 Voyager 2 review OS and use experience
The OS on the Voyager 2 is KitKat 4.4.2. A huge testament to Doogee for spending the time to get KitKat onto a sub-$100 phone. KitKat is running smooth and fine. There have been no force closes or issues with apps. Facebook, Skype and Play Store all working without issue. I installed Google Camera from Play store which is for 4.4.2 devices only and it ran without a hitch.
The touch screen is of perfect sensitivity. There were no ghost touches or missed touches and typing was as easy as it comes. I was able to touch rapidly without any missed hits.
As with the iNew V8, slow scrolling presents a slightly jittery experience. This is possibly something with the MTK kernel as it’s not the only KitKat phone to show this behavior and it was never something I experienced on Jelly Bean China phones. It’s easy to get used to however and normal scrolling is butter.
DG310 Voyager 2 review camera
If there is one area to frown about, it’s the cameras on the DG310. Doogee has the camera listed as 5.0mp and 2.0mp for front. However, these are interpolated specs. The true resolution is 2.0mp and 0.3mp.
Resolution is not the only aspect of the quality of a photo. In fact, it’s often cramming too many megapixels onto a small sensor that causes quality issues. In this case though, the DG310 camera is not one to be admired, both in regards to resolution and quality. As you can see in the 2nd photo, there is some strong purple fringing in the high contrast area in the upper left. In the 1st photo, the sharpness just isn’t quite there.
Still, though this camera is unlikely to make anyone happy, the photos it takes should be acceptable for Facebook and social network sharing.
DG310 Voyager 2 review connectivity
The Voyager 2 supports 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA, which is shocking given that mobiles 3x the price can’t manage to get it in there. Even their own flagship Doogee V9 DG900 will not be supporting 1900MHz (according to current official spec sheet). It really does make the DG310 something special and puts it in the ranks of only handful of China mobiles that support 1900.
It also bears mentioning that the Band Mode in engineering shows 900MHz, though official specs show it supporting only 850/1900/2100, so it’s unlikely the phone will truly support WCDMA on 900MHz.
Bluetooth connected to our China smart watch and transferred files between phones without issue.
WiFi is very good on the Voyager 2. From my standard test of walking 80 paces away from the router, the phone maintained connectivity and was able to surf the net quickly. It also should be mentioned, that with the 2nd and 3rd images there is a concrete wall between the router and where I stand.
DG310 Voyager 2 review SoC and Antutu
The Voyager 2 scored a healthy 17638 on Antutu, with a great score of 4658 for 3D graphics. To put this in perspective, the Doogee DG550 with MT6592 scores 4500.
The reason the MT6582 is scoring similar to the MT6592 is due to the lower resolution in the DG310. As mentioned earlier, there really are some pluses to having a lower resolution. 3D game performance is one area in which lower resolution, while not as nice looking, can give some benefit to smoothness and performance.
The SoC easily gives enough oomph to play 3D games such as Asphalt 8 smoothly. Excellent that Doogee went with MT6582 here as opposed to MT6572.
You can purchase this phone from DX.COM for only $89.99 (no coupon code needed, just click this link)
DG310 Voyager 2 review conclusion
If you haven’t noticed the tone of the review already, you will hear it now. The DG310 is a winner. I can easily recommend this phone and is a phone I would feel comfortable carrying around as my main mobile.
Stable KitKat 4.4.2 OS, bright IPS display, good WiFi and battery life and the amazing bonus of 1900MHz UMTS and OTG make this probably the best $88 you will ever spent on a mobile phone. The biggest plus of all — at $88, if it gets broken, dropped, lost or stolen, the bank isn’t broke.
Those needing a better camera or a more retina display will probably want to look elsewhere, but if that’s the case the DG310 Voyager 2 can still be considered an excellent phone for the kids or as a backup phone.
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