Rugged smartphones are one of the most interesting parts of the smartphone market. They don't try to emulate flagship smartphones, opting instead to appeal to a more rugged type of person. Most are large form factor devices with long battery lives, designed to take a beating. Many incorporate some extra tool or feature that would only be useful to the trade or outdoor market they are aimed at.

The Doogee S97 Pro ticks every one of those boxes. It's massive, has a huge battery life, can take an allegedly military level of punishment, and has a laser range finder built right into the phone.

It's clearly aimed at tradespeople, but the MediaTek Helio G95 chip running this phone makes it a speedy handset in its own right. It's currently available for just $360, making it on paper one of the best value phones in terms of features, speed, and battery life.

However, the rugged phone market is flooded with competition, and while this may be a good thing, the rush to pack as many features into a cheap phone as possible can have dubious outcomes. Today, we are going to see if the Doogee S97 Pro measures up to the ever-increasing budget-rugged smartphone competition.

Why Should You Care What I Think?

Before we get going - why should you care what I think about rugged smartphones? Well, I've been a rugged smartphone enthusiast for a number of years. I've used them working in theatres, music festivals, building sites, and perhaps most crucially around small children, the ultimate destroyers of all unguarded technology. I have also used and reviewed a large variety of rugged tech, and know what claims are worth paying attention to, along with what marketing claims are worth taking with a pinch of salt. I test things thoroughly, and that has resulted in me being blacklisted by one un-named vendor for giving their rugged device a low score for breaking under what I deemed to be fair and normal circumstances.

This particular review is a little different, too, as my faithful Google Pixel 4a died just as I received this phone, so I ended up using the S97 Pro as my daily driver for longer than most reviewers would. I suspect that's why I've noticed some things about it that I've not seen reported elsewhere.

The Doogie S97 Pro: In Numbers

Anyway, onto the specs. The S97 Pro is a Dual Sim Android 11 handset with a 6.39-inch corning gorilla glass screen. It has an 8500mAh battery that supports up to 33w fast charging and 10w wireless charging. The version I tested comes with 8GB of RAM and 128 GB storage which can be increased with a MicroSD card, though you'll be losing a SIM card slot if you do. You also get NFC capabilities, Bluetooth 5, Face Unlock, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and all the standard features you'd expect on a modern Android phone.

It has four rear-mounted cameras: a 48MP main camera, a 2MP portrait camera, a 2MP macro lens, and an 8MP wide-angle lens, along with 4 white LEDs acting as torch and camera flash. Also in the box comes a fairly beefy fast charger, USB-C charging cable, wrist strap, sim bay removal tool, and screen protectors.

What Sets the S97 Pro Aside?

What sets the Doogee S97 aside, apart from the rangefinder which we'll come to, is its size. It's pretty massive at 6.7 x 3.3 x 0.6 Inches. It fits in my pocket with my keys, but only just.

The size is somewhat of an asset, as it is excellent for watching videos on, and the massive battery life makes it great for watching media through the onboard loudspeaker, which is fairly standard but more than loud enough for most environments.

It apparently also has an onboard formaldehyde detector though I haven't seen any documentation for how it warns you if you come into contact with the noxious chemical. It has two extra side-mounted buttons, one is customizable by the user, and the other one is for triggering the rangefinder.

The Pew Pew Lazer Rangefinder

Speaking of the Rangefinder, it is the key feature of the S97 pro, so the important question is - does it work?

Well, yes, it works as well as any low-budget rangefinder. It will work indoors but there will be a lot of circumstances that will give dodgy readings. In the S97 pro's defense, this is also true even of brand-name budget rangefinders. That said, they have a video comparison with the Bosch GLM 40, a higher-cost laser rangefinder tool used widely by venue staff, theatre technicians, set builders, and a variety of tradespeople.

It seems like a dubious choice for a video comparison given that Doogee's own store page claims a 3cm accuracy variation on the S97 Pro, while the Bosch dedicated laser finder is accurate down to 1.5mm. The S97 promo video claims it is "just as accurate as the Bosch GLM 40" and while there are circumstances in which that might be true, it largely isn't.

That said, it's accurate enough for many short-range indoor uses, and on a phone at this price, it's a really nice addition - it's just a shame they are trying to market it as something more.

Is The S97 Pro Actually Rugged?

Most manufacturers of rugged devices claim MIL-STD-810G certification, and you should know that this is a purely aesthetic thing. Yes, rugged manufacturers follow military device testing protocols, but they do it in-house. The military has nothing to do with it.

So, in this case, Doogee is telling you their phone has a military certification - that Doogee gave it after Doogee tested it.

That said, the S97 Pro is as bombproof as pretty much every other phone Doogee makes, and it stood up to all the usual punishment rugged phone reviews dish out.

It's a solid brick that took both normal day-to-day use, and some overzealous dropping onto a variety of surfaces, along with the usual water and dust test that IP68/IP69K ratings should be able to take.

The screen is also tough, and some truly nasty scratching and bashing only resulted in the screen protector being marked - after removal, the Gorilla glass screen was untouched.

The flap covering the charging bay is a nice variation on port protection which feels solid while not being too difficult to remove for charging, and the phone is clearly designed for rough use.

For my money, functional side buttons you can use in gloves and face unlock are the two main things that a rugged phone needs to be useful - and the S97 has both.

The S97 Pro User Experience

Unfortunately, this is where things start to fall apart a little for the S97 Pro.

First, the good stuff. General use is incredibly snappy, there was no slowdown while moving between apps, and good background memory management stops things from getting bogged down. Mid to high-intensity Android games ran without issue.

The large screen is fantastic for general media, and the battery makes it easy to go for days without charging. Even when you need to charge it, quick charging means you can top it up briefly and get another day out of it rather than just a few more hours.

Unfortunately, there are a few glaring problems that really make the S97 Pro not all that fun to use as a daily driver. Connectivity is probably the biggest. I live in a pretty small flat, but I was getting WiFi drops frequently, sometimes in the same room as the router. This hasn't happened with any other device. Using Bluetooth and WiFi at the same time will cause one or the other to lose connection. Using Bluetooth outside on network data is better but still gives all of the artifacts of a poor connection on headphones I know to work perfectly well with other phones.

As I said, I used this phone as my daily driver, and I think that may be why I'm noticing problems here that I haven't really seen mentioned elsewhere. For example, it might sound like a tiny detail, but the automated Google Pay setup didn't work because not one of the 4 rear cameras managed to focus on my card in normal daylight.

The side buttons are incredibly easy to press, meaning that I'd frequently pull the phone out of my pocket to find that it had reset and I needed to unlock my sim before I could receive calls and messages. This is a hard issue to ignore. After all, rugged phones should be able to at the very least stay switched on in an environment as dangerous as a pocket with some keys. If you have ever been in a position where you are awaiting an important phone call, this becomes a game-breaking problem, and one it seems ironic that a rugged phone would fall foul of.

The Camera

Doogee has opted for four separate lenses on the S97 Pro, and the extra utility is a good thing. It's not going to come close to flagship phones, notably the Pixel 4a is a lot better with its single lens, but that's not too fair of a comparison, as the S97 Pro offers some interesting options for photography.

Normal photographs from the 48 MP primary and 16 MP selfie cameras are fair, though even muted lighting causes large drops in quality. The same is true of the 4K video recording, which is completely passable but has a noticeable stepping effect when changing light levels. It's ok for day-to-day use but reasonably average when compared to other budget phones in recent years.

What makes up for it somewhat are the 2MP macro and 8MP wide-angle modes. Macro lenses are a fantastic addition to phones in general, as they allow you to get high detail close-ups on the fly. This macro lens works functionally like a fixed focus lens, and with a little work you can get really wonderful images.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason Macro mode doesn't allow you to turn the flash on, which can cause problems when the phone blocks out the light as you get close.

The wide-angle camera is also a great addition. The images aren't noticeably any lower quality than the main lens, and it's a great way to pack a lot into a single photo.

The wide angle shot above was taken from the same position as the regular photo below:

The detail point on the post required me to get in close, and the macro lens shines here:

These camera modes are great, and paired with a decent regular camera would make the S97 Pro a really good rugged cameraphone - something the market severely lacks. Unfortunately, the main camera falls just a little short.

Should you buy?

If you are looking for a basic android phone that can be used when wearing gloves, take a bashing, and has a huge battery life, then the S97 pro might be for you - just maybe make sure it gets its own pocket. You'll get a lot of fun out of the macro lens too, and the distance measurement tool has some use in getting ballpark figures.

If you are hoping this phone will act as a useful tool, probably not. The idea behind it is great - a phone that can not only survive harsh working environments but has actual utility as a tool within them. Unfortunately, if you already work in those environments you are likely to trust things like accurate measurement and toxic substance detection to industry-standard tools rather than a budget rugged smartphone.

For most everyday users, this would be forgivable if you just treat the S97 Pro as a large form factor rugged phone with a big battery life. Unfortunately, the combination of the weak side buttons, average main camera, and shoddy connectivity make it less than ideal for the average user too.

This isn't entirely just on Doogee, it's a product of the rugged smartphone market in general. So many rugged phones come with a standout feature that in reality isn't all that useful to have built in to a phone. It seems to me that if someone brought out a phone at this price with no gimmicks - just tough as nails, big battery, and crucially, a fantastic camera, it would be a truly useful daily phone.

It's a shame because I am a huge fan of Doogee's approach. They have made some fantastic phones, but unfortunately, the S97 Pro isn't one of them.