The Doogee S Cyber rugged smartphone not only has a stunning design but also some very good features for its budget price.

It’s been a while since we have had smartphone reviews on our channel, but to be honest I think they have become pretty boring in recent years. There is a lack of innovation in the smartphone market. Do you think so too?

Only rugged phones get my attention because they usually look more interesting and have more features than regular phones. 

For example, take a look at the rear panel of the new Doogee S Cyber. It looks amazing, doesn’t it? It is a combination of cyberpunk, futurism and gaming styles. 

As for the features, the smartphone has a large 10800mAh battery, 8GB of built-in RAM and 12GB of virtual RAM, 256GB internal storage, 50MP AI camera, and 6.56″ Full HD+ display. 

Most importantly, it is a rugged smartphone with water, shock and drop protection. But honestly, I would feel bad about bumping or dropping this phone, because it look very nice.

Okay, let’s talk more about the design and display, and then we will test the performance, cameras and battery of the Doogee S Cyber smartphone.

Unboxing

A few protective glasses for a rugged phone

We should start our review of the Doogee S Cyber with unboxing because that’s the first thing you do when you get a smartphone. 

On the front of the box, we can see the Doogee logo, and twice the S Cyber so you don’t forget the name of the phone. As I said before, the smartphone comes with 256GB of storage and up to 20GB of RAM. It also features a large 10800mAh battery. 

After opening the box, first we see the screen protector accessories. I don’t want to open it, but I think there is a cloth to wipe the screen before applying the protective glass. 

Then, we have a smartphone itself. We will take a look at it a little later. 

There is also a USB Type-C charging cable and a power adapter in the box. 

You can also remove that plastic, and find the user manual, warranty card, and screen protector. 

However, the smartphone already has a screen protector. Either way, you can install it on later. 

There is no a protective case in the kit, because you don’t really need it since the smartphone has a rugged design. 

Design

Rugged body for all occasions

So, looking at the side edges it is clear that the Doogee S Cyber is a rugged smartphone. The bottom and top, as well as the corners are protected by durable plastic, while the sides are metal. 

The USB Type-C charging port is hidden under a rubber plug. 

One, two or four speakers?

I also noticed two speakers above the screen and two speakers below it. Usually, the sound speaker is located at the bottom or on the back, but here it is above and below the screen. Very interesting.

In fact, only one of the four speakers works – the bottom right one. All the others are fake, or they are made for design purposes. However, that one speaker is really loud. 

Fingerprint scanner and Face Unlock for security

There is a volume rocker and a power button with a built-in fingerprint scanner on the right side. By the way, the fingerprint reader works very well.  

You can also use face unlock, but I am more comfortable using the fingerprint scanner. 

Customizable button for quick access to some functions and apps

Like most other rugged smartphones, the Doogee S Cyber has a customizable button on the left side. You can assign a function to it with a single, double or long click. Among the shortcuts are Open Flashlight, Open SOS, Open Underwater Camera or Take a screenshot. You can also select the app to open with by pressing on a customizable button. 

There is a TF and SIM card slot on the left side on the phone. As you can see, it is a hybrid slot for two SIM cards or one SIM and a memory card. 

I really like the pattern on back panel of this smartphone. It looks like a gaming phone. However, looking ahead, it is not designed for heavy games. 

How many sensors are in the main camera?

The rear camera module also looks amazing. It looks like there is a main camera in the center, and four cameras around it. But I think some of them are fake. We will check it out later. 

There is also a large flashlight under the main camera.

Doogee S Cyber is a big and heavy smartphone

Even though I like rugged smartphones, I realize that they are not for everyone because of their large size and weight. The dimensions of the Doogee S Cyber are 177 x 82 x 18mm. The weight is 368 grams. 

For comparison, the iPhone 12 weighs 170 grams. You can also see that it is much smaller than the Doogee smartphone. 

Display

The screen is just a screen, nothing special

So, the Doogee S Cyber is quite a bulky phone, but its screen is actually not that big. Its diagonal is 6.58 inches. 

However, because of the thick bezels around the display that protects the smartphone from damage, it looks much bigger than regular phones with the same diagonal. 

By the way, the screen has a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection.  

This is an IPS panel with maximum brightness of 400 nit and Full HD+ resolution.  

Overall, it is a standard screen for a rugged smartphone. I cannot say anything special about it. 

Software

Clean and almost stock Android with no bloatware

Before we talk about the performance of the Doogee S Cyber, a few words about software. 

The new smartphone runs on Android 14 operating system. To be honest, I am not sure if there is a new Android 15 coming to this phone. 

You know, many Chinese smartphones have a lot of bloatware, but the system of the Doogee S Cyber is as clean as possible. It looks like a stock Android. 

However, since this is a rugged smartphone, it has a ToolBag with compass, sound meter, magnifier, and other functions. 

How to expand RAM?

Among the interesting things in the settings menu is RAM Expansion. You can enable RAM expansion here, and select the storage space to be converted to RAM. Do not forget restart your phone after that. 

There are also smart controls in the settings, such as Lift to check phone, smart motion and pocket mode. 

I have already shown you the functions of the smart key. 

The other functions and settings of the Doogee phone are about the same as other Android devices. 

Hardware

Entry-level processor, but lots of memory

You know, the Doogee S Cyber has a lot of memory, namely 8GB of built-in RAM, and 12GB of virtual RAM, as well as 256GB of storage. You can also use the memory card up to 1TB to expand the storage. 

So, I think that would be enough for most people. 

However, the smartphone is powered by the entry-level UNISOC T606 chipset.  It is a very popular processor among budget phones, but it is pretty old. It was released three years ago – in 2021. 

I haven’t noticed any problems with the operating system though. It works very fast and smoothly. But let’s check the performance of the smartphone in benchmarks. 

Benchmarks

Decent results in benchmarks

Of course, we will start with AnTuTu, because many people, including me, evaluate the performance of mobile devices by this benchmark. 

So, the Doogee S Cyber has 280,000 points in AnTuTu. As I said before, the smartphone has an entry-level processor with the performance of a budget phone. 

There are also 391 points in a single core test and 1378 points in a multi core test of GeekBench 6. 

The 3DMark recommends me to run the Wild Life test, and the smartphone scored 427 points in it. 

Overall, the benchmarks results are expected. But let’s try to play some games on the smartphone. 

Games

Can you play games on the Doogee S Cyber?

I installed Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile, Asphalt Legends Unite and Shadow Fight on the Doogee S Cyber. 

Let’s play them without my commentary for now. 

So, all the games run and they don’t have any major performance issues. 

However, during long gaming sessions, I found it difficult to hold the phone in my hands because it weighs quite a lot. 

If you really want, you can play games on Doogee S Cyber. But just physically it wasn’t very comfortable for me. 

Cameras

The camera was a surprise in the Doogee S Cyber for me

When it comes to cameras, it looks like there are five sensors on the rear panel. However, I only found information about 50MP main camera and 5MP ultra-wide camera. 

In the Antutu app, we can only see a 50MP rear-facing camera and 16MP front-facing camera. 

I have always said I prefer to have an ultra-wide second camera instead of bokeh or macro, but here it is only 5MP. We will check out the wide-angle photos a little later. 

Camera app 

In the camera app of the Doogee S Cyber smartphone, we have following shooting modes: Panorama, Portrait, Pro, Ultra resolution, Photo, Video and more, such as Time Lapse, Ultra-Wide, Night, etc. 

In the camera settings, we can choose the picture quality: super fine, fine and normal. 

The smartphone records videos in maximum Full HD 1080 30fps resolution.  

Sample Photos 

I honestly wasn’t expecting it, but the photos look very decent.  

I tested the camera in cloudy and sunny weather, and while the pictures lack color in cloudy weather, they look very good in sunny weather. Do you agree? 

I even like the wide-angle photos, despite their resolution of only 5MP. 

Even the shots at night look really nice. 

Sample Videos 

As for video shooting, unfortunately, it is very bad in the dark, but in the daytime, you can make some pretty good videos. The main problem is that the smartphone has no video stabilization.

You can watch the video footage in the video before the article at 14:18.

Battery

A big battery is always a good thing

Probably the main feature of the Doogee S Cyber is the battery because it has a capacity of 10800mAh. 

The manufacturer promises 540 hours of standby time, 36 hours of video watching and 20 hours of web browsing. 

I am going to run the PCMark benchmark to check the battery life of this smartphone. The battery life of the Doogee S Cyber is more than 17 hours.

So, the battery life is really good, but what about the charging time. 

Fast charging isn’t exactly fast

The Doogee S Cyber supports 18W fast charging. I cannot say it is really fast in 2024, but 18W is still called fast for some reason. 

It took me about 4 and half hours to charge my smartphone from 0 to 100%. 

By the way, the Doogee S Cyber also supports OTG reverse charging, so you can use it as a power bank to charge other devices. 

Connectivity

No 5G, but there is dual 4G support

As I said before, the Doogee S Cyber is powered by an entry-level chipset that supports 4G LTE networks. However, you can use two SIM cards with 4G networks. 

As for Wi-Fi, there is support for 2.4G and 5G bands, while the Bluetooth version is 5.0. 

NFC for contactless payment is a must

It is important for me, like probably for some of you, that smartphone supports NFC to make contactless payments. The Doogee S Cyber has it. That’s very good. 

Why won’t Doogee S Cuber be my primary smartphone?

So, I was really excited to test the Doogee S Cyber smartphone. Although I don’t plan on using it as my primary phone because it is pretty big and heavy, it has some very good features. 

First, the smartphone has a rugged body and you don’t have to worry about damaging it with shocks, drops or even immersion in water. 

I also like the design of the rear panel. Since you are unlikely to use a protective case, because it is simply not needed here, the back panel will attract the attention of others. 

When it comes to performance, I am not surprised by the benchmarks results, but I didn’t find any issues with operating system performance and even games. 

On the other hand, the camera really surprised me. You can take really good photos day and night on this smartphone. 

The main feature of the Doogee S Cyber is the battery. You most likely want to buy it because of the battery, right? The battery life is very long. If you don’t use the phone heavily, I think it will last more than a week on a single charge. 

That’s all I wanted to tell you about the Doogee S Cyber smartphone.