We check out vivo’s latest budget mid-range offering!
While vivo’s Y-series of devices is supposed to be the company’s budget line, they’ve steadily begun to adopt many of the same design cues of the more expensive V-series of phones, making them a more palatable choice for people looking for a beautiful phone that won’t break the bank.
Today’s unboxing subject, the Y95, is the prettiest phone to come out of that budget lineup. With a gorgeous rear and relatively low price, the Y95 is a great alternative if you don’t have the cash for the V11i.
What is it?
It’s the latest and prettiest member of vivo’s budget Y series of phones. The phone is aimed at people looking for a gorgeous looking phone that may not have enough dough put together for the company’s more expensive mid-range device, the V11i.
The phone comes with all the accouterments that you’d expect from a modern device, save for a pair of headphones: a jelly case, a 10W charger, MicroUSB cable, and documentation.
V11i, is that you?
In all honesty, we wouldn’t fault you if you mistook the Y95 as the V11i especially with the Starry Night variant of our review device. While they look identical, there’s one very subtle difference: you don’t get any fancy gold trimming on the Y95 that’s present on the V11i. If you want something more striking, you can ditch the subdued Starry Night variant of the Y95 and instead go with the bright Aurora Red variant, where the gradient transitions from red to blue.
Aside from that gold trim, you are getting the same gradient finish, the same polycarbonate build, and the same port layout with the V11i: SIM tray on the left, volume and power button on the right, and a headphone jack, loudspeaker, and a MicroUSB port (sigh) at the bottom. The Y95’s polycarbonate body is built solidly, though obviously plastic is more prone to scratches than metal and glass. We recommended that you use the jelly case that comes with it.
The Y95 is slightly smaller than the V11i but shares the same small, halo notch. Up front, you have a 6.2-inch IPS display with HD+ resolution. While the low display resolution is a downer, it does not feel like an HD panel at first since the colors pop nicely. Like the V11i, the Y95 comes pre-installed with a screen protector.
You get a dual rear camera setup comprising of 13-megapixel f/2.2 and 2-megapixel f/2.4 snappers. The primary rear camera might sound familiar, and that’s because it is the same module used on the Y81 and the 3GB variant of the Y71. The addition of a depth sensor and AI smarts should help the Y95 take better photos, at least on paper. Unlike its other Y-series siblings, you get a selfie-centric 20-megapixel f/2.0 front camera on the Y95.
Here are some sample photos we took using the Y95:
What’s powering it?
You get a Snapdragon 439 processor paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. A successor to the Snapdragon 430, the 12nm-based Snapdragon 439 gets the GPU of the Snapdragon 435 and comes with AI capabilities. Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 439 offers as much as 25% better performance compared to Snapdragon 430. On our initial benchmark test, the Y95 scored around 81k in AnTuTu—scoring slightly higher than phones equipped with a Snapdragon 450 processor.
Keeping the lights on is a 4030mAh battery. Paired with a power-efficient processor and a low-resolution display, the Y95 should perform well in terms of battery endurance. Don’t expect fast charging on the Y95, as it comes with a MicroUSB port and a 10W charger.
How much does it cost?
vivo is selling the Y95 for Php 13,999. While we find it pricey for its specs, we are reserving our judgment until we thoroughly review it. The Y95 is now available at all stores.
vivo Y95 Specs
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 octa-core processor
- 4GB RAM
- 6.22-inch HD+ IPS Halo FullView display,
- 64GB of expandable storage (up to 256GB)
- 13-megapixel f/2.2 and 2-megapixel f/2.4 rear cameras with PDAF, Dual Tone LED flash, AI Scene Recognition
- 20-megapixel f/2.0 front camera
- Dual SIM
- 4G, LTE, VoLTE
- WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
- Face Unlock, Fingerprint scanner
- 4030mAh battery
- Android 8.1, FunTouch OS 4.5