For a while, I have been looking for a replacement for my Nexus 4. I have been mostly pleased with it, but not completely. The two things that bothered me most were the lack of dual-SIM and (usable) LTE.
So I ordered a Doogee Valencia2 Y100 Pro at Gearbest when it was announced in June, which seemed to be almost the perfect device for my needs and at 119 USD quite inexpensive too.
Pre-ordering a phone from a Chinese manufacturer without any existing user reports is quite a risk. Occasionally, these phones turn out to be not working well and getting after-sales support or even updates can be difficult. I decided to take the plunge anyway.
Two very good reviews have been published on YouTube in the meantime. You may want to check them out:
My phone arrived two days ago, so here are my initial impressions:
Gearbest also included a travel adaptor for the charger. Some assembly required.
The following table shows the advertised specs and the contrast to reality:
This kind of exaggeration appears to be common for phones in the Chinese domestic market. But some folks still need to learn that when doing business internationally, such trickery just hurts your reputation.
With that out of the way, let's take a closer look at the device:
Although the rear camera appears to not have a 13 MP sensor (the YouTube reviewers above think it is more like 8 MP), it still manages to reach a quite acceptable picture quality.
Comparing day and night shots
HDR off / HDR on
So I ordered a Doogee Valencia2 Y100 Pro at Gearbest when it was announced in June, which seemed to be almost the perfect device for my needs and at 119 USD quite inexpensive too.
Pre-ordering a phone from a Chinese manufacturer without any existing user reports is quite a risk. Occasionally, these phones turn out to be not working well and getting after-sales support or even updates can be difficult. I decided to take the plunge anyway.
Two very good reviews have been published on YouTube in the meantime. You may want to check them out:
My phone arrived two days ago, so here are my initial impressions:
The package contents
The phone came with a plastic hardcover and screen protector attached. In the box there was a charger and USB cable, headphones, a second screen protector and an instruction manual.
Gearbest also included a travel adaptor for the charger. Some assembly required.
Phone specs: Advertisement and reality
The advertised specs of the phone (5" 720p screen, MT6735 64-bit quad-core, 13 MP camera, 2200 mAh battery, etc.) sounded almost too good to be true for that price. Unfortunately, they turned out too good to be true.The following table shows the advertised specs and the contrast to reality:
| advertised | actual | remarks |
| 5" 1280x720 IPS capacitive 5-point touch screen | 5" 1280x720 IPS capacitive 5-point touch screen | |
| Mediatek MT6735 64-bit, 1.0 GHz | Mediatek MT6735P, 1.0 GHz. Phone comes with 32 bit Android installed | Clock frequency was originally advertised as 1.3 GHz, but later changed without notice to 1.0 GHz. The MT6735P has a slower GPU than the MT6735. |
| 2 GB RAM, 16 GB flash memory | 2 GB RAM, 16 GB flash memory | |
| 13 MP rear, 8 MP front camera | 13 MP and 8 MP are most likely only interpolated | |
| 2200 mAh battery | 1800 mAh battery | There is a sticker on the battery which says 2200 mAh, but when you peel it off it reveals the manufacturer label which says 1800 mAh. |
| Weight: 151 g including battery | Weight: 159 g including battery | picture of phone on a kitchen scale |
This kind of exaggeration appears to be common for phones in the Chinese domestic market. But some folks still need to learn that when doing business internationally, such trickery just hurts your reputation.
With that out of the way, let's take a closer look at the device:
CPU and Linux kernel
$ uname -a Linux localhost 3.10.65+ #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jul 10 20:28:28 CST 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux
shell@Y100pro:/ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 4 (v7l) processor : 0 BogoMIPS : 32.39 Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt CPU implementer : 0x41 CPU architecture: 7 CPU variant : 0x0 CPU part : 0xd03 CPU revision : 4 Hardware : MT6735P Revision : 0000 Serial : 0000000000000000
Camera
Although the rear camera appears to not have a 13 MP sensor (the YouTube reviewers above think it is more like 8 MP), it still manages to reach a quite acceptable picture quality.
Comparing day and night shots
HDR off / HDR on
Performance
As you can expect, the MT6735P does not particularly shine in benchmarks. The UI however feels snappy and smooth, and web browsing is fine even on complex websites.
