Here’s the first IR night-vision rugged smartphone - shame about the screen resolution

Doogee S96 Pro - $239.99 pre-order at Aliexpress

Doogee S96 Pro - <a href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=6378&awinaffid=103504&clickref=hawk-custom-tracking&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aliexpress.com%2Fitem%2F1005001572880113.html" data-link-merchant="aliexpress.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">$239.99 pre-order at Aliexpress
(£191.06/AU$431.93)
The latest <a href="https://www.techradar.com/best/best-rugged-smartphones" data-link-merchant="techradar.com"" data-link-merchant="aliexpress.com"" target="_blank">rugged smartphone from Doogee is now available to pre-order. Its main selling point is a 20-megapixel night vision camera and it also comes with an 18-month warranty and massive 6,350mAh battery. The only issue is its mediocre HD display.

While the rest of the world has to contend with Black Friday, the Chinese have their own version, known as Singles Day (a.k.a 11.11).

Some vendors use the occasion as the perfect excuse to pre-launch new products and slash prices ahead of the expected tsunami of orders. 

Doogee, for example, has announced that the S96 Pro - billed as the first infrared night vision rugged smartphone that runs Android 10 - is now available. The device is priced at $299.99, but you can grab it for $239.99 instead if you pre-order at the Singles day price and don't mind waiting.

The S96 Pro’s unique selling point is a night vision camera based on the Sony IMX350 sensor chip, with four infrared lights and four LED lights. Doogee claims you will be able to clearly photograph any object, even in total darkness.

Note, this is different to the heat-seeking FLIR technology found in devices like the Blackview BV9900 Pro.

The rest of the spec sheet includes three rear cameras (including a 48-megapixel Samsung model), a 16-megapixel selfie camera, a Mediatek G90 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB storage (that uses Samsung’s faster UFS technology).

The only real weakness is its 6.22-inch, 1520 x 720px display; that's not even full HD resolution.

Bear in mind

  • If this product ships from mainland China, it will take at least a month to reach either the US or UK
  • If you've managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new, let us know and we'll tip our hat to you
Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.