Review Verdict: The vivo Y27 is a significant upgrade to last year’s Y16 across the board, making it a more compelling offering at the under Php 9k segment in the Philippines. It could have been even better had vivo decided to do away with the notch and use a processor that’s newer than the 3-year-old Helio G85.
Pros
-Fast charging speeds
-Significantly better camera vs Y16
Cons
-Helio G85 an aging processor
-That notch is dated
vivo follows up last year’s Y16 with the Y27, and it feels like a full glow-up for the brand’s budget line. With several upgrades across the board and roughly the same price tag, the Y27 appears to offer significantly better value for money. Is it a hit as a budget phone?
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Design
As far as core design is concerned, the Y27 shares the same design language as the Y16. The differences are subtle at best, most notably with the two camera modules: on the Y27, they are slightly larger and have a decorative gold accent surrounding it. Our review unit is in Burgundy Black, which has a color-shifting hue between black and maroon depending on how light hits the surface.
Instead of a brushed finish, the Y27 went for a matte finish that’s more resilient to wear and tear–and is a great way to flaunt its unique colorway. Other than those subtle differences, everything else is the same with the Y27–from the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, flat frame sides, to the location of the buttons and ports around the phone.
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Display
One of the minor criticisms about the Y16 last year was that it was using a rather dated display that has a HD+ resolution and a notch. The Y27 thankfully gets a better Full HD+ resolution this time around, which goes along with the display being slightly larger at 6.64 inches (vs 6.51 inches on the Y16). The higher resolution means that the display is more detailed and vibrant, and makes it more enjoyable for content consumption.
Speaking of that department, the Y27 does support Widevine L1, letting you enjoy those Netflix shows in Full HD. This makes the Y27 a good budget offering if you are looking for an affordable phone that lets you enjoy your movies and videos in Full HD without any restrictions.
The only thing we’d nitpick about the Y27’s display is that is still has a notch. A number of budget phones in the under Php 10k segment are already shifting to a more modern punch-hole display, and we hope vivo follows through with this trend with its future offerings.
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Cameras
We really liked how vivo made the most out of the Y16’s cameras despite hardware limitations, and it is just right that the Y27 gets a significant upgrade in this department. This time around, you get a 50-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel selfie camera.
The 50-megapixel main camera takes good photos in daylight and mixed lighting scenarios, and is better than expected for a budget phone. The post processing is not aggressive, so photos in general are detailed and are more color accurate to what the eyes see.
The improvement in the Y27’s camera’s performance is best noticed when shooting in low light–especially when using Night mode. While the default Photo mode provides a decent low-light shot for a budget phone, using Night mode drastically improves on overall detail especially in managing highlights. Comparing the shots we took with the Y27 in low light conditions, the budget phone truly shines when you use Night mode–even if it means holding the phone steady for around 2-4 seconds.
As for the selfie shooter, the 8-megapixel camera does fine with good amount of lighting. Low-light selfie shooting may be a challenge with the Y27, but can still produce photos that are decent enough for social media posting.
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life
The biggest “upgrade” on the Y27 is with its processor of choice, where you get a Helio G85 that’s paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage–the latter being expandable via MicroSD. While the Helio G85 may be an unusual choice given that it is 3-years-old at this point, it is miles more powerful and capable than the Helio P35 used on the Y16.
Despite its age, the Helio G85 is a suitable option for any budget phone. Its decent enough for general multi-tasking and productivity use, and can handle a bit of gaming on the side. Speaking of gaming, the Y27 can run Genshin Impact at low graphics, though we suggest that you tone it down to lowest graphics settings for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
While it has the same 5000mAh battery as the Y16, the Y27 is the most affordable vivo phone to support 44w FlashCharge, which is definitely nice to see on a budget device. with those charging speeds, you can easily top up the Y27’s battery in around an hour–again, relatively fast considering that this is a budget device.
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
vivo is serious in stepping up in the budget segment, and the Y27 is a perfect example of that effort. Compared to last year’s Y16, the Y27 a lot of relevant upgrades to make it stand out in the under Php 10k segment. They have have come short with the processor of choice and the notch on its display, but the Y27 is a promising showing from vivo on what they can offer on their future budget phones.
vivo Y27 Review Philippines: Price
The Y27 is priced at Php 8,999.
