Guest PaulOBrien Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 Introduction How good can an Android phone really be for £55? That is the question you find yourself asking yourself when you unbox the Doogee Nova Y100X. Sure, the Moto E is a super-budget phone and that is nice enough, but even that doesn’t come in anywhere near as cheap as this. It has to be rubbish, right? Right? Not so fast! Pricing The Doogee Nova Y100X is available to buy from TinyDeal priced at ~£55. White and black versions of the phone are available. At the time of writing, the phone is not available in the UK warehouse and therefore is shipped from China, so import duty / VAT may be payable on this price. A clear back shell and screen protector are included in the box. Specifications At the price, you probably shouldn’t expect flagship specs and indeed, you don’t get them. But there are a few pleasant surprises and the omissions are largely obvious. The Nova Y100X includes: Android 5.0 LollipopMTK6582 quad-core 1.3GHz processorDual SIM support (3G only, no LTE)5” 1280x720 IPS OGS screen2.5D Gorilla Glass5 Megapixel rear camera*2 Megapixel front camera*1GB RAM8GB ROMBluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n WiFiFM radiomicroSD expansion2200mAh battery141.2 x 70.2 x 7.9mm119g * Note that in a lot of the product listings the cameras are stated as 8 Megapixel / 5 Megapixel - these are ‘interpolated’ specs. We’ve seen countless MTK6582 based devices over the years, and honestly I was very surprised to see Lollipop on the Y100X together with 1GB RAM. We were always fans of this CPU, so it's interesting to see how it performs here with the newer OS and more memory. The 2200mAh battery is quite small compared to the latest devices, but the CPU is traditionally pretty frugal and look how light the device is. 119g! Design and construction We have the black version of the Y100X in for review. The white version has a white front too but I think the black phone is the best looking of the two. It has a glossy finish on the front and back with a shiny silver edge, a silver accent around the camera on the back and a silver ‘Doogee’ logo. It actually looks pretty classy and belies its budget price. It’s of course completely plastic, but there’s no real flex in the device and it definitely feels well put together. The device feels incredibly light and thin. It's certainly not chunky at 7.9mm thick, but Doogee have employed a curve on the back of the device and volume buttons that are, effectively, on the back, together with the camera, flash and speaker (with small bumps on the back cover to lift the phone off a flat surface so the speaker can be heard). The power button is on the top and has a reassuring click. It sits alongside the 3.5mm jack. The microUSB charging port is offset on the bottom. Below the screen sit menu, home and back keys, which are not backlit. Under the back cover you’ll find the removable battery, microSD slot and dual (full size) SIM slots. Once again, it all looks and feels very well put together. For a budget, Chinese import device, I certainly have no complaints. Software I mentioned previously that I was surprised to see the Y100X running Lollipop on a MTK6582 and not only is it a recent version of Android (‘5.0’), it’s pretty far from a bare bones implementation too. Thankfully there’s no heavy UI styling (it looks largely stock) and not a lot of bloat, but there are some rather nice little additional features. On the Y100X you’ll find… ‘HotKnot’ proximity based data transferAdaptive brightness (certainly not a given at this price point!)Multiple sound profilesBattery percentageAutomatic ‘intelligent battery saving’Intelligent gesture based wakeupGesture motion detectionScheduled power on / off (a MediaTek staple) By far my favourite features in the software are the gesture features. You double tap to wake that we all know and love as well as the ability to double tap on the capacitive home button to put the device to sleep. Great. Not only that, you can sweep up on the screen when the device is off to wake it too, sweep down to open the camera, write an m to pause music playback, write a c to start the phone and much more. It works wonderfully and certainly isn’t something we’d normally expect to see on the stock ROM of a bargain basement device! In-use I hate to sound like a broken record, but budget devices have to cut features in the right place and deliver where it matters. I am totally on board with the current trend of including really excellent screens on virtually everything and the Y100X is no exception. The 720P screen is absolutely fine at the 5” size and it’s bright, sharp and mightily impressive. It apparently has a nano-coating to reduce fingerprints as well as Gorilla Glass, but I found mine getting very smudged up very easily. Touch sensitivity is excellent. Performance overall is really very good, feeling at least as smooth as Snapdragon 400 phones at a higher pricepoint. The processor might not be the latest and greatest, but no doubt helped by the optimisations in Lollipop, it’s perfectly pleasant to use with no real lag or stutter in general use (of course, it’s not a gaming machine). The mono speaker on the back of the device is loud but pretty tinny, headphone output is perfectly fine, so you'd best pack your earphones if you’re watching a movie> Let’s look back at those specs again to see where the compromises have been made then. 1GB RAM is fine, the CPU is capable, the screen is excellent, 8GB ROM is not a lot but at least you have microSD expansion, wireless performance is excellent and those cameras? Ah. The cameras. Camera Now here’s your compromise. The cameras take reasonable pictures in good light… only reasonable though… and in low light, forget about it. They’re very poor. The camera app at least is fully featured, but there’s not really the hardware there to back it up. How much of a show-stopper this is will depend on your needs of course, but personally, i’d take an awesome screen over an awesome camera every time. Battery Life The Y100X has a 2200mAh battery which might not sound like a lot, but it’s not running a monster of a processor, it’s much more humble and that’s reflected in the runtime, it’s surprisingly good. Another plus point is that it charges up very fast too. Pros and cons What I like about the Doogee Nova Y100X: Surprisingly smooth performanceInteresting designExcellent screenGenuinely useful software additionsClear back shell and screen protector in the box What I don’t like about the Doogee Nova Y100X: Fingerprint-magnet finishVery poor cameras8GB storage can fill up fast Verdict With ultra budget phones like these, you have to look at the device and work out not necessarily whether it’s a good or bad device overall, but whether it’s the right device for you. If you’re on a super-tight budget and need a surprisingly capable Android phone but you don’t care about the camera, the Y100X is well worth a look. Where to buy TinyDeal: Black Further details are also available at the Doogee website. View full item Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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