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This rugged phone has an 8500mAh battery and a frickin' laser beam rangefinder
The DOOGEE S97 Pro is also surprisingly affordable for such a rugged device
Are you a tough guy? Or a tough gal, or a tough non-binary person, or any kind of being which has integrated the concept of toughness into their identity? Then you want to check out the DOOGEE S97 Pro. Not only is it literally certified tough, it has a bonkers massive battery and a frickin' laser beam attached to its head the upper part of its case thingy. "A laser beam?" I hear you say. But Michael, why would a phone need such a thing? I'll tell you, hypothetical conversant. It's for measuring distances. You know, like this thing, which you can get at a hardware store for surprisingly few dollars. Whelp, the DOOGEE S97 Pro has it built in. It can do a straight distance measurement, say, to the wall you're about to demolish as part of your home renovation, and area and volume calculations, in case your elementary school math is rusty. And it had "Pythagoras modes" for triangle calculations, in case your middle school trigonometry is also rusty. The laser is accurate to a range of 40 meters (131 feet for 'Muricans).
Aside from the frickin' laser beam, the phone is certified waterproof at IP68, and dustproof at IP69K. DOOGEE says the phone has "high-density molecule coating," which is presumably part of the "soft TPU" covering the "aluminum alloy reinforced polycarbonate" (read: plastic and metal with some extra plastic around it). The phone can allegedly withstand up temperatures "between -55°C and -70°C." Maybe that's a typo in the press release, and it means between -55 and +70. DOOGEE notes that the camera modules are completely surrounded by metal. The various ports, including USB-C for charging, come with covers for extra protection.Alright, those are the bells and whistles. What about the guts of this thing? Underneath the 720p 6.4-inch LCD screen, covered in hardy Gorilla Glass 5, you'll find an octa-core MediaTek Helio G95, a mid-range chip equivalent to about the Snapdragon 700 series. It's paired to a respectable 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, plus a MicroSD card. The rear cameras are a familiar mix: 48MP primary, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro, 2MP portrait. There must be a factory somewhere punching out those modules by the thousand. The front-facing hole punch camera is 16MP, and mobile speeds are limited to LTE.
But what about that battery I talked about in the intro? Oh, boy. It's 8500mAh, approximately twice the size of even the biggest flagship phone. It charges up at 33 watts, not amazing, but better than a lot of the alternatives. And surprisingly, it includes support for wireless charging at up to 10 watts, something I've never seen on a "rugged" phone before. It'll probably take you a couple of days to actually charge it without a plug, but you can do it if you like!Also, the phone is running Android 11. As well it should, but it's nice to have that spelled out. DOOGEE isn't saying how big or thick the phone is, but based on the specs and the photos, it's safe to say the thing is a chonker.The DOOGEE S97 Pro goes on sale today on AliExpress, with a choice of grey, red, or orange case accents. Though the retail price is $330, it's on sale for $220 until June 25th.
The Escort SmartRadar, as its name might imply, is a radar and laser detector. If you've been looking to get a radar detector for a bargain, the Escort might be the device for you, and Groupon has it at a nice discount. The site is offering the Escort SmartRadar for $199.99, a significant discount compared to Amazon's $411 price tag or Best Buy's $360 clearance option.
It wouldn't be a new month without a roundup of the previous month's best Play Store offerings. Of course, we've already taken a look at the best new apps from February 2013, but games – as usual – were also well-represented by new entries last month.
If you're colorblind, then I'm afraid you might have to sit this one out, but the rest of you might want to try out Color Sheep. The game is fairly straightforward: you're a sheep. Of course. A pack of hungry, multi-colored wolves are descending upon you. In order to avoid being consumed, you have to target them with your mouth lasers. You didn't know sheep have mouth lasers? Well, they do.
Guys did you hear the big news? Leia is a Disney Princess Now! Rovio came out with a Star Wars version of Angry Birds! It's got lasers, wookiees, light sabers, and a bunch of other stuff that you remember from those movies you saw growing up that don't seem to bear much resemblance to the newer movies your kids watched. I can feel the conflict within you, though: is this going to be terrible, a bastardization of all my beloved characters, or can I set aside my disdain for everything Lucas and Rovio have done, relax, and enjoy this game? Well, that's why we have reviews, so lets get started.
Marbles In Wanderland! Has Cats, Rabbits, Ninjas, Lasers, And A Bunch Of Other Words You Love
Here at Android Police, we trade in awesome games. Gingers getting chased by the grim reaper? Check. Apes summoning lightning from the sky? Check. Zombies
Here at Android Police, we trade in awesome games. Gingers getting chased by the grim reaper? Check. Apes summoning lightning from the sky? Check. Zombies taking shotgun blasts to the face? Check. A kid playing around in his room when he should be doing his homework? Okay, they can't all be winners. But here's one that is sure to melt your face off: an adorable kitten fighting fields of bunnies. What's that? You don't see what's so awesome about that? Here. Let me show you: