Vivo Y55s Review: Just About Enough

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Vivo is projecting its Y55s as a camera-centric smartphone – something we are not yet used to seeing in this budget, especially from offline manufacturers. However, from a cursory glance at the specifications tells us why this is an interesting proposition for anyone is who is looking for a rather compact phone and is looking for it at offline retail stores.

So, we took it for a spin and have been testing it for the last couple of weeks. Let’s try and decipher the rudimentary ‘whether to buy it or not’ conundrum in our Vivo Y55s detailed review.

Vivo-Y55s

Also Read: Top 5 Vivo Smartphones To Buy In India

Vivo Y55s Specifications:

  • 5.2-inch HD, 1,280 x 720 resolution, 2.5D Curved Glass protection
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset; Quad-core; Adreno 306 GPU;
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 16GB internal memory, MicroSD card support (Dedicated slot)
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Funtouch 3.0 OS on top
  • 13 MP, f/2.2 aperture lens, Normal, Night, Panorama, HDR, PPT, Pro, Face Beauty, Ultra HD Modes
  • 5MP front camera, F/2.2 aperture lens, Face Beauty, Normal, HDR, Screen Flash
  • 147.90 x 72.90 x 7.50mm and 142 grams
  • Dual SIM slots, LTE with VoLTE, USB 2.0/OTG, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Glonass
  • Virtual Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Proximity, Ambient light, E-compass
  • 2,730mAh battery
  • Vivo Y55s price in India is 12,450 INR at the time of writing

Design and Build

Sporting a design reminiscent of the recent slew of phones (read: V5, V5 Plus et al) brought out by Vivo, the phone comes bundled up in a sturdy plastic body and slides into one hand comfortably.

Vivo-Y55s-design

With dimensions of 147.90 x 72.90 x 7.50mm and weighing in at 142g, the Y55s is fairly light and this works well in its case.

There are no physical buttons up front on the phone, which comes sans any fingerprint sensor that may act as a deterrent for some too. The power button and volume controls feature on the phone’s right edge and are easily accessible.

The dual-SIM Y55s has a dedicated memory card slot on the top along with a normal micro USB Type-A port and mono speaker downstairs.

On the back, there’s a camera and a LED flash placed side-by-side and separated from the rest of the back panel by a single band running across horizontally.

Keeping in mind its intended target segment (offline) on the market, the phone comes bundled together with a decent-looking, robust plastic cover and has a protective film already applied on top of the 2.5D touch glass.

All in all, the Y55s is a compact, good-looking smartphone, with a design that mimics its older siblings, which you can literally work on ‘single-handedly’.

Vivo-Y55s-display

Display

A 5.2-inch HD display greets you up front, although Vivo could have actually gone a notch higher and provided a full HD one at that.

The whites feature a prominent bluish tint which is probably an aftereffect of Vivo trying to reach across to the NTSC color gamut. The auto-brightness does its job well, with the phone providing just enough brightness when you’re outdoors.

For those who love their phone just way too much, Vivo has also made for its customary eye-protection mode (that changes the bluish tint to a fiery yellow) that is there in a bid to protect the eyes due to prolonged exposure.

Also Read: Vivo V5 Plus Review – Escalates Selfie Game To A Higher Price Segment

IMG_7922

Performance and Software

The Y55s is strengthened by a quad-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, which is supported by a 3GB RAM accompanied by a 16GB internal space.

Yes, there are better alternatives available but the phone’s decent resistance to increase in temperature, as well as efficient sifting capabilities (through apps), make it an option worth considering.

We played Fifa Mobile and Pokemon Go (personal choice, don’t ask) and both of them ran unblemished, except for hardly a few lags here and there. Having said that, the limited 16GB internal storage makes this is a device apt for the very basic users, that is when we consider long term usage.

Having said that, the limited 16GB internal storage restricts its relevance to the very basic users. The way most people use their phones these days, this could be a problem in the long run.

Vivo-Y55s-bottom-edge

Coming to the OS, the phone features the Android-based Funtouch 3.0, which primarily gives a feel of the iOS, albeit not in the real sense of the phrase.

Like all phones from the company, the Vivo Y55s also lets the users through to the notification shade as well as the quick settings by scrolling from the top and bottom respectively. Another useful feature is the smart-split, which comes into play when someone is watching videos and has to attend to an incoming message.

The app notifications (for Facebook, Whatsapp, and SMS) get displayed as floating icons, clicking on which will divide the screen into two equal parts for efficient and easy multi-tasking.

Camera

Vivo boasts of an arsenal full of camera-centric smartphones and the Y55s is no different. However,  in practice, we didn’t see Vivo Y55s to have any discernible edge over the existing competition. It isn’t better or worse than what we usually come across in this budget.

On it back, the phone carries a 13MP camera with f/2.2 aperture lens. Vivo hasn’t mastered the camera constraints that plague almost all affordable Android phones. The camera managed to surprise us every now and then when the lighting was good, but as one would expect in this budget, performance stumbles in low lighting.

Vivo-Y55s-camera

The photos from this camera look good enough on the phone’s display, but the put them on a bigger display, lack of details become apparent.  The dynamic range and color accuracy is about average too. Many a time, the rear camera struggles to focus – more so in low lighting.

An elaborate pro mode is an added bonus. You can also shoot low-resolution slow-motion videos but the quality isn’t much to write home about.

The 5MP selfie camera won’t be setting any benchmarks either. It does come with a smart screen flash, though, which could help salvage a few low-light selfies.

Rest assured, it was an okayish experience for us, as far as the optics are concerned.

Vivo Y55s Photo Gallery

Battery and Miscellaneous 

The Y55s is aided by a 2,750mAh power unit to keep itself alive, which enables it to keep running all through the day for us (moderate to heavy usage). We can usually hit night time without the battery giving any red alert. Fast charging isn’t supported, though.

To conserve the battery, the phone provides two modes, namely the low power consumption mode and the super power saving mode.

Vivo-Y55s--dedicated-microSD-card-slot

The former lowers the CPU and GPU frequencies as well as the brightness and instantly disables all those functions that may be leeching off the battery.

The super saving mode, on the other hand, enables only the contacts, phone, messages and the clock and disables pretty much everything else. Battery-related notifications that automatically pop up (at 20% and 10% capacity) and enable the users to quickly switch to the power saving modes.

Call quality is excellent in our area. The quality of audio output is great and the mono speaker at the bottom is loud enough. Music experience via headphones is also very gratifying.

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To buy or not to buy?

Though on paper the Vivo Y55s may appear to be a bit underwhelming, it is nevertheless a decent device. Taking on the likes of the Redmi Note 4 is indeed a daunting task and Vivo looks to have thrown some serious weight behind the phone to do the same.

A few may find it to be a tad over the top when it comes to its pricing, but throw in the offline market angle and it becomes justified at the very instant.

However, lack of a fingerprint sensor and limited internal storage space, do act as stumbling blocks for an otherwise very decent phone.

Pros:

  • Good overall performance
  • Decent battery life
  • Looks good
  • Dedicated MicroSD card slot

Cons:

  • No Fingerprint sensor
  • Average front camera
  • Only 16GB internal storage
Anurag SharmaAnurag Sharma
Passionate Storyteller, Occasional Writer. \m/ Journalism Undergrad. Trying to win at life one sentence at a time. Why so serious? Let's put a smile on that face. 8)

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