CHINESE phone maker Doogee hasn’t made a strong impression on the Philippines yet, though that may soon change with the arrival of the Doogee Mix (click for complete specs). Yes, we know, that sounds like a joke. However, trust us on this: The Mix is anything but.

In fact, we doubt you’d be able to find a nicer-looking phone with powerful internals for under P13,000 (roughly $258) elsewhere. At least not among devices that are officially available here. Look at it, and read through its finer qualities; it’s basically a watered-down Xiaomi Mi Mix that won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

The base model of the Doogee Mix, which has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage, will only cost you P11,995 ($238) when it starts shipping August 4th. Whereas the version with a whopping 6GB of RAM — the one you should be opting for, we should say — will set you back P12,995 ($257).

Those are pleasingly affordable prices for a bezel-less handset with good specs, not to mention a 5.5-inch AMOLED display; a fingerprint reader; and two rear cameras — one carries a 16-megapixel sensor, and the other has an 8-megapixel sensor. The front-facer, meanwhile, combines a 5-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens to get more people in or fit the scenery.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S8+ review: The phone to beat in 2017

The MediaTek Helio P25 chipset inside is optimized for dual-cam smartphones, which sounds promising, and comes with Mali-T880 graphics for better gaming performance. The P25 is also said to be up to 25 percent more power-efficient than the P10 found in many of today’s midrangers.

On the software side, the Doogee Mix runs a custom skin on top of Android 7.0 Nougat. Finally, the battery is a 3,380mAh unit, so you should have enough power for a day’s work on a single charge.

Doogee Mix unboxing

---