There are a lot of ruggedized Chinese smartphones, and they are all more or less similar to each other. However, we seem to have found a new model, Doogee Blade 10 Ultra, which has a nice price tag, looks adequate, and most importantly, is relatively thin and compact, of course, for this segment. In this review, we’ll have a closer look at this smartphone, test it, and at the end, as always, draw conclusions and give recommendations to whom to buy and who not to.
Content
| Display | 6.56″, 1 612 × 720 (20:9), 401 ppi, IPS LCD, 90 Hz, Gorilla Glass, 400 nits brightness |
| Processor | Unisoc Tiger T606 1.6 GHz, 8 cores, |
| Graphics processor | ARM Mali-G57 |
| Memory | 8 GB LPDDR4X 256 GB UFS 2.2 |
| MicroSD card slot | Yes, up to 2 TB |
| Battery | 5150 mAh, 10W fast charging |
| OS | Android 14 |
| Interfaces | 4G (LTE), Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth v 5.0, NFC, USB-C |
| Combination slot | Nano-SIM + Nano SIM + TF card |
| Main camera | 50 MP, f/1.8, Full HD video (1,080p) 30 fps |
| Front camera | 8 MP, f/2.0 |
| Additional features | Fingerprint scanner, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, light sensor, compass |
| Protection | IS, IP68, IP69K, MIL-STD-810H |
| Dimensions | 172.7 × 80 × 11 mm |
| Weight | 240 grams |
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra comes in a black and green box.
Inside is the phone itself with the glass stuck to the display, an additional film and screen cloth, documentation and warranty, as well as a 10W power supply and a USB-C cable.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra — is a classic ruggedized smartphone with a hardened body. It’s made of matte plastic with corrugated elements, reinforced corners and flat edges. It also has a frame made of lightweight aircraft aluminum.
On the rear panel, we see a small rectangular camera module with a flash, the Doogee inscription, and a visual decoration that seems to show the phone’s internal components.
On the front panel, around the screen, there are fairly wide bezels and a front-facing camera.
On the right side there is a screen lock button with a built-in fingerprint scanner and volume buttons. On the left there is a physical button to which you can assign the opening of any desired application or other functions, as well as a SIM card slot (2 Nano-SIM + micro SD). There is nothing on the top end, and on the bottom we see a USB-C port with a rubber cap, a speaker, and a microphone.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra is protected by three popular standards: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H. This means that the phone is protected from water and dust, it can withstand drops and works at extreme temperatures. Also, the smartphone can be immersed to a depth of 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, and it is said that this will not affect its operation at all.
The Doogee Blade 10 Ultra has a fairly modern look and belongs to the category of smartphones that are made for the military, people working in the open air or outdoor enthusiasts.
This model is quite compact and thin (172.7 × 80 × 11 mm). For its segment, Doogee Blade 10 Ultra is really small. It fits easily into a pocket and does not stick out any more than ordinary modern «shovels».
Its treads on the body and protruding elements replace a case, and they also prevent the smartphone from slipping in your hand, so it is always comfortable to hold and feels secure.
However, such compactness came at a price, so the new product has a relatively small battery, especially for its category. But we will talk about this in one of the sections below.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra has a 6.56-inch IPS HD+ screen with a resolution of 1,612×720 pixels (20:9) and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. The pixel density is 269 ppi, and the maximum brightness is 350 nits. The top is covered with Gorilla Glass 5.
In the settings, you can change the color temperature (I recommend setting the contrast mode to high), refresh rate (60 or 90 Hz, or automatically), dark theme, text and scale settings, turn on the night screen, and improve video display.
As you can see, the display of the smartphone is as simple as possible. However, even this budget IPS-matrix is able to produce an adequate and, as far as possible, bright picture with rich colors and reasonable detail. I enjoyed watching videos on this display, but at the same time, you need to understand that the screen dims a bit when you look at it from an angle.
Pixels are almost invisible, and in direct sunlight in auto-brightness mode, everything is clearly visible, so it’s convenient to use the smartphone.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra is equipped with a single speaker at the bottom, so we can’t talk about full stereo. And the quality of this speaker is very mediocre. It is deaf, somehow creates an echo and buzzes. But the volume is good.
Of course, you get used to it, but even watching YouTube videos through the speaker is not very pleasant at first. Therefore, I advise you to use headphones or get used to this low-quality sound of the speaker.
The vibration response of the smartphone is simple and strong enough. There are no settings, so it’s just there, but at the same time, it’s not the easiest or cheapest. The vibration is nice and strong, and there’s even some kind of pattern. I liked this element much more than the sound.
And although on the back of Doogee Blade 10 Ultra we see a module of three cameras and a flash, it’s actually one camera and two plugs. The sensor here are 50 megapixels with f/1.8 aperture and autofocus. The camera can shoot video in 1080p at 30 frames per second.
For a camera of this segment and price, the camera surprisingly takes decent photos. Of course, to get the best quality, you should only do this during the day.
I liked the adequate detail and more or less normal colors, that is, there is no unnatural oversaturation, especially in green. But there are problems with the dynamic range. There is a night mode, but it’s better not to shoot at night or in low light because the noise is terrible, and the detail goes to sleep.
As always, the camera shoots in 12.5 megapixels by default, but you can switch to 50 megapixels. In this case, it’s a good idea to do so because the photos will be much better than in the basic mode.
The 8-megapixel front-facing module (f/2.0) is just fine for a budget phone. Of course, it lacks detail, and it also makes a lot of noise, so I wouldn’t recommend it for selfies, but it’s more than enough for video calls.
There’s also a Portrait mode, with good background blur settings, but in this mode it’s better not to have any large or medium-sized objects behind you because «brains» sometimes can’t even blur them, not to mention smaller things.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra is powered by an 8-core Unisoc Tiger T606 chip with a frequency of 1.6 GHz. The graphics here are ARM Mali-G57 MP1. This is a very popular solution in budget phones, especially in ruggedized ones, so this processor has been tested for a long time. Its plus side is that it’s cold and doesn’t lag, and its minus side is that it’s weak.
See the test results below. The hardware is enough for adequate system performance and running most popular games at medium-high graphics settings with a decent frame rate. We’re talking about Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Wild Rift, etc. But not COD Warzone, Diablo Immortal, etc.
The smartphone has 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM (up to 12 GB of virtual RAM can be added) and 256 GB of UFS 2.2 storage, space for microSD cards up to and including 1 TB, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0, and an NFC chip, aGPS, a GPS module, GLONASS, Galileo, and a digital compass.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra has a clean Android 14 OS, so nothing prevents the smartphone from working at least normally. I also advise you to set the mode to 90 Hz and the experience of using the system will be adequate, especially for the budget segment.
The system has no ads at all, which is very pleasing, and no unnecessary pre-installed applications. However, there are no additional features that are often found in similar secure smartphones. For example, there is no thermal camera or other similar tools, but there is a fairly powerful and slightly enlarged flashlight and an underwater photo mode.
For the sake of a thin body, the developers sacrificed the battery and it is relatively small. The available 5100 mAh should be enough for 26 hours of talk time, 17 hours of video viewing, and 7.5 hours of surfing the Internet. Fast charging at 10 watts is also announced.
Full charging takes almost two hours, and from 0 to 50% you have to wait an hour.
And although the battery is really small, it still easily lasts for a full day of work, and if necessary, for a day and a half. Let me remind you that this is a budget smartphone, so there is almost nothing to eat «battery» food. You set the screen to 60 Hz, set the brightness to 50%, and don’t worry about battery life.
Unfortunately, there will be no PC Mark tests because the smartphone did not want to complete them. It would start, but then the test would constantly crash. Neither restarting the application, nor reinstalling it, nor restarting the phone helped.
For the most part, the Doogee Blade 10 Ultra turned out to be exactly what I expected. It’s a modern, affordable and secure phone for a wide range of users. However, I thought that there were more additional features that characterize the segment of these smartphones, but it turned out that there are none. Therefore, this device is probably not worth recommending to the military. Although it’s not a given that they use thermal cameras and other gimmicks on their phones.
If you need a really rugged smartphone for little money, which is not afraid of water, and falls are not scary, and after mud you can wash it and use it again, then here is an option. And it’s really quite compact and thin, of course, for its segment.
There is also a fingerprint scanner and it is installed in the lock button. It’s fast enough and works without glitches, but it often fails to recognize wet fingers.
I liked the screen, of course, for its characteristics. Yes, it’s definitely not the best I’ve seen, but for this format and price tag, the display is very adequate.
But the sound was disappointing. The sound comes from the speaker with an echo, which greatly spoils the impression. Perhaps this is due to its protection because the speaker is recessed into the case and is definitely protected by some grilles and the like, so all this can create certain changes.
The processor here has been tested by many similar models. It’s a cheap and simple solution that works fine, doesn’t get hot, but it can’t deliver any serious performance results.
Nevertheless, it is enough for the normal operation of the system, and it is not excessive, it easily runs popular games, and they run with normal graphics and do not glitch.
We also like the camera in the smartphone. Of course, we keep in mind that it is normal for the budget segment and the format of secure devices. Because cameras have never been a strong point of these models and often act as a kind of plug.
Doogee Blade 10 Ultra is sold at a price starting at UAH 6427. In my opinion, it’s definitely a reasonable price for such hardware, features, and protection. But there are plenty of competitors, so let’s look at them. Moreover, sometimes they offer better features for the same money.
One of the most popular smartphones in this segment will be Samsung Galaxy Xcover7but it also costs a bit more (from UAH 11,000). There are alsoUleFone Power Armor 16S with a price tag of UAH 6149, andBlackview BV7300 (price from UAH 6890) andBlackview BV8100 with a price tag starting at UAH 8949. Among other new products, pay attention toOscal Pilot 1(price from UAH 7390) andCUBOT King Kong Power 3 (price from UAH 6,780).
