Do you think DOOGEE Valencia2 Y100 is the best budget smartphone?

Do you think DOOGEE Valencia2 Y100 is the best budget smartphone?

After Valencia DG800, DOOGEE launched the second generation Valencia2 Y100 smartphone last month, priced at $129.99. This phone boasts the world's first LED notification lights, with 5 inch screen, octa core 64-bit processors, 720p display and 1300 megapixel camera. Today, we will take a look at the phone’s design as well as the overall specifications to check whether the phone lives up to our expectations.



As one of DOOGEE’s Youth Series, the phone comes with six colors, namely black, white, pink, green, yellow and blue. The device is made entirely out of polycarbonate, solid and durable. The original wheat textured cover is rarely seen and feels exquisite in hand. Plus it’s anti-slip and does not attract fingerprints, which is a nice addition. 



The design is simple, with the micro USB port and earphone jack right on top of the 5 inch display. The backcover is removable to give you full freedom of color choice. But undesirably, you have to try really hard to take it off cause the cover sits ridiculously tight and no breach is left beforehand for you to open it. 



Power on/off key and volume rocker are still on the right, which is easily reachable despite a large screen. 



What is unique about the mobile phone are three LED notification lights on the left side, designed to inform you of the missed calls, unread text messages, and any pre-set APP notifications. This design will undoubtedly make the smartphone more intelligent and users don't have to worry about missing important information. When charging, the three lights can also turn into power indicator lights, showing charging progress all the time.



Under the hood, there are two SIM card slots and a micro SD card slot up to 64GB. As for the battery life, the phone won’t last very long with the 2200mAh. But you can easily get two days’ average use coupled with OS power-saving mode. If you depend a lot on phones, it may die much earlier though. 



The rear camera slightly potrudes from the cover, but don't worry about the lens being scratched, cause it’s well protected by the silver ring around it.



Below the rear shooter is a back touch panel for internet browsing, books reading, photos taking etc, just as you would do with the front screen, but with the easiness of holding the phone with a single hand. If that was not enough, a simple double tap on the back of the phone or long press will open any application you choose. 



User interface

The device is running Android 4.4.2 Kitkat version with DOOGEE OS on top. The UI looks to be pretty simple with highly identifiable icons. Color scheme used for the icons and various other aspects is impressive. The DG OS packs quite a few features, including notification bar and power-saving mode. In general, improvements are made in terms of both visual and operational experience. 





Benchmarks



The specs are decent from the Antutu benchmark test, and as far as I see an octa-core MT6592 chip is good enough for a $129.99 device. 



I have to say that the Doogee managed to score a very respectable score,which is close to the LG G3 and better than Huawei Honor 4X, which scores 27884.

From what we mentioned above, DOOGEE Valencia2 Y100 is competitively priced, but the specifications may not distinguish Valencia2 Y100 from other phones of similar price range. So, let’s check the cameras before making a quick conclusion.

Cameras

The device has a regular 8.0MP camera on the front. For better selfies, you may want to start the pre-installed APP CameraBox. It comes with multiple modes like voice shooting, “V” sign shooting and smile shooting etc. Other features include identifying the gender and age of the selfie-taker and choosing the degree of facial beautification. 





The main camera features a SONY 13MP sensor and pictures are of average quality. Check out the samples from down below. 







The pictures were crisp and clear and the color reproduction was good. Focus was fast and the f/2.0 aperture brings enough light into the photos. The camera is good at capturing details even in low light, as you can see in the pictures that was shot at night. The white balance is steady and natural, but noise and exposure are not well controlled. Personally, I don’t think the night shooting performance is as good as it claims. However，considering its price, we may find it quite reasonable.

Conclusions

For the price, DOOGEE Valencia2 Y100 turns out to be one of the best offerings as a whole. Of course, the phone still has some room for improvement, especially in the hardware department. But we did find something exceptional about it like original looks, good cameras and LED notifications lights,what are your thoughs?