[Device Reviews and Information] Alberto96:
F7 Pro - Review (part 1)

Introduction

This is the latest flagship from DOOGEE, the F7 Pro.

Hardware

This device is powered by a Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797), the latest power-house from Mediatek that is the direct competitor to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. Just check this comparision table to see how similar they are.

A flagship deserves an high-end Camera Hardware, and here it is: Sony IMX230 with PDAF, 21MP, for the rear camera, and Samsung S5K4H5YC, ISOCELL 8MP, for the front camera. I'll talk about the Camera Quality in one of the next paragraphs.

Unboxing

Packaging comes with many accessories: 1x USB Type-C Cable, 1x 5V/2A USB Charger, 1x TPU Cover, 1x Plastic Screen Protector with wipes, 1x SIM Tray Removal Tool, 1x Quick Start Guide, 1x Safety Information Booklet and the Smartphone (of course). I'm sorry for the bad quality of the accessories image, but this combination of colors makes my camera sensor to get crazy.

The device features a Metal Chassis, super-solid and with curved angles just like the Xiaomi Mi Note, and the back cover is made of an interesting plastic, with a shaggy pattern that feels pretty comfortable to the hand. Also this plastic back cover is curved, but not removable.

It is 16.20x8.03x0.94cm, with a weight of 203g. Being a 5.7 inches device, with a giant 4000mAh battery inside, you can't expect something better without removing soft-keys capacitive buttons. Just as a comparision, the Meizu Pro 5 has almost the same width, but the F7 Pro is taller due to the keys. I prefer to have physical keys, but nowadays this is something becoming less common.

On the front side there is the usual 2.5D Curved Display, with small bezels and a slim black frame. The upper front side of the device features a Front-Facing Camera supported by a Flashlight, a Secondary Microphone used for Noise Suppression and/or Stereo Video Recording, an Earpiece, the Sensors hole that includes Light, Proximity and Gesture Sensors, and the rare Notification LED. The LED is pretty bright, and seems to be an RGB variant even though the software doesn't allow to customize colors.

On the lower front side there is only the Soft Keys zone, with Menu, Home and Back buttons.

On the back side there is the Plastic Back Cover with that nice pattern i have described before. It doesn't keep fingerprints, but it is a bit hard to clean due to the patterned surface.

The upper rear side of the device features the Huge Camera Sensor (look at the lens, the biggest one i have ever seen) supported by a Dual-LED Flashlight (not Dual-Tone, just like i said for the DOOGEE T5 they wrote Dual-Tone, but it is Single-Tone. DOOGEE should fix this wrong declaration on their devices), and the bot-so-compact, rounded, Fingerprint Scanner with a smooth surface, nice to the touch. The lower rear side of the device features just the brand logo, because the Speaker is positioned near the USB Type-C port.

Device

Screen

I have reviewed many devices, more than 20 at the moment, and i have to admit that this device has the best screen quality i have ever seen. Do not forget that it is Full HD 1080p, but even though the Pixel Density isn't super-high, pixels aren't visible at all (at least to my eye haha) and the Colors Reproduction is just great. Well Done DOOGEE, this screen is awesome. Just to say, this is an AUO Screen.

The Light Sensor isn't good at all though, i do not know whether this is an hardware or software limitation, but on my device it supports just two brightness levels. 0 Luxes & 133 Luxes = No Light & Maximum Light. What does it mean? Adaptive-Brightness (or auto-brightness) isn't reliable. I hope this is just a software issue so that it can be easily fixed. Other than that, the screen is also super-bright!

Viewing Angles are perfect, nothing negative to say about. Comparable to AMOLED screens.

Camera

As regards the Camera, it seems that the software isn't 100% ready. Considering the high-end camera sensors used on this device, the photos quality might not be so satisfying. This paragraph will be updated as soon as i get a Software Update that improves camera quality.

Photos taken with the Rear Camera are pretty good, but as you might notice the Noise Level is a bit too high, with a reduced image detail. Photos can be taken at 26MP, interpolated from 21MP, but both resolutions look exactly the same.

Flashlight is powerful, able to get some bright photos on ultra-low light conditions. Sometimes it is out-of-sync though.

As regards Video Recording, this device is able to record 4K Videos, but considering that Photos Quality needs to be improved, also Videos need the same treatment. Anyway, thanks to the 2nd Microphone, the Recorded Audio Quality is great.

Front Camera seems to work correctly, with nice quality photos and a wide-angle view. Do not forget that this sensor is also used as a Rear Camera on many devices, so expect some great front-facing photos (aka "selfies"). The front-facing LED Flash is sufficient.

Audio

Thanks to my new accessory, i am now able to show you a professional measurement of the Speaker's Volume. I have tested it using the usual Helicopter Sound Test, available on YouTube.

As you can see, the Volume is pretty high. The Sound Quality is decent, maybe a bit flat. It means that it doesn't completely lack low frequencies, but high frequencies are reduced too. A good balanced sound that is acceptable, better than most device that doesn't feature a dedicated sound chamber.

Thanks to the Dual Microphone configuration, this device is able to record your voice, or anything else you want to record, in the best way possible with Noise Suppression, Echo Cancellation and other Sound Improvement systems.

In-Call Audio Quality, tested on both Mobile Network & VOIP, is good. Technically the Mediatek Helio X20 supports VoLTE, that provides super-high quality on 4G network, but DOOGEE forgot to enable it. Even with disabled VoLTE, HD Voice is still there so it means that on 3G you will use AMR-WB Quality, better than standard calls. This HD Voice feature is automatically enabled, and used, when both callers (Receiver & Sender) support it, otherwise you won't see the "HD" icon.

It is nice to see how the sound quality is getting better and better on Chinese Smartphones, DOOGEE is one of those improving this department (even though they forgot to enable VoLTE, DOOGEE do not ignore this), and i really appreciate this.

GPS & Location

Many users requested me to test GPS on the device i review, and you right. Everytime i forgot to add GPS tests to my reviews, even if it gets tested in the testing phase. From now on, i won't forget anymore!

As regards the GPS Signal, this device seems to behave perfectly. I have tested it with GPS Test & AndroiTS GPS Test, indoor & outdoor. Here you can see the result.

Indoor

Outdoor

It is clearly noticeable that the GPS Antenna works great on this device, the Plastic Back Cover helps to get more signal. You won't have issues with any GPS-dependent app.

Telephony, Mobile Network & WiFi

Thanks to the 4G Band 20 support (some other Chinese Smartphones don’t have it), I’m almost always and everywhere connected to the 4G Network of my Mobile Network Provider (TIM Italy).

Also 3G Signal Reception is accurate, actually I never managed to get connected to the 2G Network of my Mobile Operator because there was always some 3G Signal available.

4G Network Speed should be able to reach 300MBps thanks to the 4G Cat.6 Modem that the Helio X20 provides, but my Mobile Operator is pretty bad so this the maximum i managed to obtain.

WiFi 2.4GHz speed is just fine, but this device supports WiFi AC 5.0GHz, so i managed to obtain almost full-speed (~100/20 VDSL, got ~80/20) from my Broadband Connection. Superb!

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