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Editors' rating8.6
Pros
- Waterproof Ip68 rating
- NFC and wireless charging
- Rear fingerprint sensor for one-handed use
Cons
- Fiddly SIM insertion
- Heavy
The Aermoo M1 looks suspiciously like the Doogee S60 rugged smartphone. The case looks the same, the screws are in the same place, the fingerprint sensor, camera and flash placement -- all are the same as the S60.
In fact the only difference I can find is an engraved notice on the back of each phone saying that the Doogee is designed in Spain, whereas the Aermoo is designed in Germany. Essentially the M1 is a re-badged S60.
The M1 phone is 164 x 81 mm and is 15.5 mm thick -- just like the S60. This phone also has an aluminium metal body and polycarbonate bumper to protect the edges.
Like the S60, the M1 has a hard to insert SIM. You need to use the screwdriver provided to undo the two screws to insert your SIM or Micro SD card. It is a fiddly job for large hands.
Aermoo says on its website that this is the "world's first" 5.2 inch IP68 rated rugged phone with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and a resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 224ppi. Sorry Aermoo, I think the Doogee S60, which I reviewed in October 2017, came out before this one did.
Inside the phone, there is an octa-core Media Tek Helio P25 processor running at up to 2.5GHz, 6GB LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB of RAM, and a Mali T880 GPU at 900MHz. Like the S60, the M1 has a large 5580mAh battery which supports wireless charging.
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There is a 21MP 16:9 camera at the rear and an 8MP front camera. Picture quality is good, and there are several camera features such as burst mode, face beauty and panorama.
The camera has a nice soft scroll dial on screen to change image settings such as candle light, sport, night portrait, landscape.
It has a push to talk button and SOS button which calls a number after a long press of the SOS button. It will also send a pre-configured date-stamped text message to your contact with positioning information.
Its IP68 rating means that it is dust tight and can be immersed in up to 3m deep (10ft) of water for up to 30 minutes.
The M1 runs Android 7.0 -- build dated October 26, 2017. The after market software customization, 'Know', is the same as that on other Doogee phones I have looked at.
I do like this version of Android 7 -- especially the Smart Assistant. Answer a call by waving your hand at the top of the screen, change images or music, take screenshots sliding three fingers up and down, and slide three fingers left to show recent apps.
A feature -- eyebrow mode -- configures outdoor mode, sleep mode, night mode and adjusts the blue light filter. One hand mode swipes the screen off to one side to switch between apps.
Like the S60, the Slide menu brings up a quadrant in either bottom corner of the screen for quick access to tools, system apps and recently used apps.
Other features include NFC, a tool box including a sound meter, compass, flashlight, bubble level, a picture hanging and height measuring tool, pedometer, heart rate monitor, alarm, magnifier, protractor, plumb bob, and an air pressure monitor.
I am essentially reviewing a re-badged S60 phone -- there is no difference between the features at all -- apart from the price. Aermoo sells the phone at $379.99, and Amazon has the Doogee S60 phone listed at $349.99
I do like the features on the M1. I like the one-handed operation with the slide wheel, and I like the fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. If I was watching my spending, I would buy the cheaper S60 from Amazon -- after all, the S60 and M1 are essentially the same device.
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