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Today we’re taking a look at the N50 Android Smartphone from Doogee. Thanks to Doogee for sending this one over, it looked like a super interesting budget phone. From what I saw Doogee is known for rugged phones whereas this is a more mainstream kind of daily driver phone. I’ve been getting more and more curious about budget phones so let’s dive into the specs on the N50, my initial impressions and usage, then my overall thoughts on value.
Firstly, the N50 is coming in at an incredible MSRP of just $160 and it does still go on sale sometimes. The N50 has a 6.52 inch screen with a max resolution of 720 by 1600. From the factory it will be running Android 13 with what appears to be a mostly stock android experience. Doogee explains the N50 will get 2 years of OS support. We’re getting a solid amount of system memory here, 8 gigs which is awesome for a device in the price range. If 8gb wasn’t enough though, we can enable up to an extra 7 gigabytes of storage as virtual memory for a total of 15gb. You’ll have 128 gigabytes of storage built into the N50 but you can actually expand the storage on this phone with a MicroSD all the way up to 1 terabyte. I sorely miss this feature on smartphones, I’m super glad to see it here. On top of the microSD card, those of you diehard 3.5 millimeter jack people out there get some love! The 3.5mm port is on top of the phone to the left which is the best placement in my opinion. In terms of the battery, we have 4200mAh worth of capacity which in my testing was quite good. In the few weeks I’ve been using the phone, it’s been relatively power efficient. The phone does support 18 watt USB-c charging which again, amazing considering the budget and all of the other features. The loud speaker is rated by Doogee to hit 90dba, I can’t accurately verify that but it does get decently loud for a budget smartphone. As for the processor, the N50 uses the UNISOC Tiger T606 Soc. This means two A75 cores up to 1.6GHz and 6x A55 cores up to 1.6GHz. The GPU utilized here is the Mali G57. There is a fingerprint sensor built in here, I did try to test it out but I had a hard time not clicking the screen wake button and I had a tough time getting the sensor to work with multiple fingerprints. The fingerprint sensor was a little bit of a let down. As for the cameras, we have a 50 megapixel main camera and a 2 megapixel macro lens on the back side of the phone. Here is some low light picture and video footage, the sensors on this setup really need some decent light. Now in this example we have a lot of light. We are limited to 1080p30 max video recording but I think that’s perfectly fine on a budget smartphone. The speaker and mic were fine, no real issue during testing. As you saw, the phone actually comes with a thinner TPU-like case and a screen protector. This is just kind of wild at the price point, the N50 is absolutely crushing it in terms of value.
So those are the specs. What are my thoughts? The value here is bananas. At first I have to admit, the phone was a little laggy at times. Doogee released multiple software updates though improving performance dramatically. The phone feels like it’s actually gotten faster, I don’t know that I’m using a super budget phone while I’m scrolling around, or loading apps. I don’t know much about the CPU or GPU in this so I ran a few benchmarks, the phone managed to get 426 points in 3dmark Wildlife. Comparing this to my Pixel 6a which costs maybe double, it’s comparatively not great, the Pixel 6a scores about 6,798 points so, the N50 isn’t necessarily a good gaming phone but for standard usage outside of gaming, it’s been fine.
For the price, it’s honestly an amazing deal on a brand new phone. You’re getting a ton of features, the phone is obviously in new condition, you get a case, a screen protector. That being said, if you don’t mind buying used, is the N 50 still a deal? In checking Swappa when I made this video, it looks like if you were open to a used phone, you could get a Pixel 4 in good condition with a case and a screen protector for what the N50 in new condition goes for. The pixel 4 might be a little faster and technically if it’s unlocked, you could flash custom ROM software. It’s kind of a toss up here but when you factor the N50s value, I think it’s the winner. Before you say, “but the pixel 5a costs just as much on the market” that cost does not include a case and screen protector. The pixel phones might be faster but won’t be new and may or may not have good battery life. The N50 has 2 years of software support which is a little short but for the cost, it’s hard for me to be too upset though I think all android phones should have minimum 3 years of OS and security updates. So to sum up, for the cost, it seems difficult to beat the N50. I like the N50 as an ultra budget feature packed smartphone and I like it as just a second phone for when that inevitable day comes when you might smash your Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra into pieces by accident.
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