In 2018, smartphone manufacturers came up with numbers of tricks to steal consumers’ attention. Part of their gimmicks were color gradient design, smaller notch, and of course, improved camera setup. With this, Vivo dropped a new trendy smartphone before the year ended – the Y95.
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| Vivo Y95 Review; More than Just a Trend? |
Dressed with some refreshing features, our team tapped the Vivo Y95 as our daily driver to see if it can give your money’s worth. Let's dive in!
The Vivo Y95 comes with a stylish design resulting into a premium-like physique. Our team received the Aurora Red variant that features Red to Purple gradient effect. Having a chic appearance, this handset matches those users who want to standout.
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| 6.22-inch HD+ IPS (1520 x 720) Screen |
The device flashes a 6.22-inch panel with a halo notch, which was first found on the Vivo V11. As usual, the notch houses its selfie snapper, and earpiece. Meanwhile, Vivo decided to leave its top portion unoccupied, while its chin is dominated by its 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port, microphone, and speaker grilles.
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| Halo Display |
Its card tray – which gives off two SIM card slots, and a dedicated microSD card slot – is sited on its left cheek. On the other hand, its volume keys, and power/lock button are located on its right side. Aside from being responsive, its buttons and fingerprint scanner were thoughtfully placed somewhere we could easily reach it as well.
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| On-screen Navigation Keys |
Flip the handset on its back to reveal its glossy back. In fact, the device is so shiny that you can use it as a mirror, somehow. Its back also accommodates its dual rear shooters, fingerprint scanner, and the Vivo branding.
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| Gradient Design |
Just like what we've said, it can disguise as a premium smartphone as it has sophisticated design. It allows us to hold it easily, thanks to its rounded corners. However, its glossy back is too slippery, and could attract too much fingerprints and smudges. Good news, Vivo provided a clear case to protect your device, while still allowing you to flaunt its head turning physique.
DISPLAY:
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| Display |
Going back to its display, the Y95 delivers a 6.22-inch panel with HD+ 1520 x 720 resolution. This appeared underwhelming for us, considering that there are other devices which can offer a higher resolution at this price point. Hence, this made the Y95 too expensive for users who are looking for a good multimedia phone.
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| Multi-touch Test |
Nevertheless, the unit could still give you a good viewing experience. It comes with vibrant and accurate colors, too. It also scored 10 on multi-touch test, which means that gamers can enjoy playing with this device, plus it has a big screen.
SOFTWARE:
The Y95 is loaded with Android 8.1 Oreo OS with FunTouch OS 4.5 on top. Navigating the device is tricky at first, most especially when you’re a first time Android/Vivo user. Swiping down from the top will reveal your notifications, while swiping from the bottom to top will give you its shortcuts and toggles. Similar to other Vivo devices, the Y95 has no app drawer. Users can still organize their apps by creating an app folder, though.
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| Software |
Meanwhile, Vivo packed it with various pre-installed apps including Facebook, Lazada, WPS Office, Google native apps, V-Appstore, vivoCloud, EasyShare, and more. These will leave users with just 50GB of internal storage down from its initial 64GB onboard storage.
PERFORMANCE:
As a quick recap, Vivo armed the Y95 with the new Snapdragon 439 octa-core processor complemented with Adreno 505 graphics. It is also coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage to accompany users on their mobile activities.
To show us what to expect about its actual performance, we ran it on our preferred benchmark apps. Here are the results:
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| Benchmark Results |
- AnTuTu - 81,087
- PCMark Work 2.0 - 4,394
- Geekbench - 851 (Single Core)
- Geekbench - 3,227 (Multi Core)
- 3DMark - 13,028 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
- 3DMark - 7,994 (Ice Storm Extreme)
- 3DMark - 828 (Sling Shot)
- 3DMark - 456 (Sling Shot Extreme - OpenGL ES 3.1)
- 3DMark - 506 (Sling Shot Extreme - Vulkan)
See Also: Vivo Intros APEX 2019 Concept Smartphone
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| Asphalt 9: Legends |
The Y95 has a decent performance but we just felt like its price tag should offer more. It can support our daily mobile activities such as basic communications, social media browsing, and streaming online. However, when we tried to multitask, and to switch apps from one to another, we noticed that it started to slow down.
We played multiple games such as Asphalt 9: Legends, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Good news, the device could really support these games. The down side, on the other hand, is that the graphics must be compensated to have a smooth gaming experience.
Also, the device became hot when we're using it non-stop, it is still manageable though.
CAMERA:
CAMERA:
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| Camera |
As a camera-centric brand, Vivo made sure that the Y95 will also bank on mobile photography. The company geared it with a dual-rear setup composed of a 13-megapixel main sensor, and a 2-megapixel secondary shooter. For selfies, it boasts a 20-megapixel snapper with AI Face Beauty to enhance your photos.
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| Camera Settings |
The device features various camera modes to elevate your experience as well. These include HDR, portrait, AR Sticker, Face Beauty, Professional, Panorama, and more.
Sample Photos:
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| Low-light (Outdoor) |
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| Low-light with with Backlight HDR (Outdoor) |
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| Outdoor |
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| Cityscape |
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| Building |
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| Indoor |
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| Food |
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| Indoor |
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| AR Stickers |
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| Selfie |
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| Selfie |
As you can see, the Y95 can produce good photos using its dual rear shooters, and selfie snapper. Using its main camera, we noticed that the images have no strong color dynamics. Photos were also too soft when captured in low-light settings, while noises became visible, too.
Meanwhile, its front camera worked better compared to its main shooters. What we liked the most about its performance is that it won’t overdo your photos. Users were allowed to adjust its beautification, and setting it at its lowest level will really give you a natural-looking results. However, just like its rear cameras, images also turned grainy when good lighting wasn’t provided.
Related: Vivo Y95 versus OPPO A7
CONNECTIVITY:
The Y95 is a dual-SIM device that supports LTE connectivity, and if you run out of data connection, the handset also allows you to connect to WiFi. It is equipped with basic connectivity features including Bluetooth, GPS, and FM Radio. All of these worked well during our tests. We never had an issue with its signal reception as well.
BATTERY:
To keep the fun running, the Y95 sports a 4030mAh non-removable battery that can deliver longer battery life than other smartphones at its price point. Tapped to do majority of our mobile tasks, it’s impressive that it could last for more than eight hours considering that we’re always connected to WiFi and data. Our activities include basic communications, social media browsing, watching videos, and casual gaming.
Meanwhile, when we continuously used it for gaming, the device only lasted for almost five hours. We observed that when it’s running out of power, the device also tends to heat up.
On the other hand, the handset failed to run the PCMark battery life test.
VERDICT:
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| Vivo Y95 |
Vivo was able to unleash a trendy smartphone through the launch of the Vivo Y95. But considering that it sells for Php13,999, the device couldn’t meet our expectations. Personally, it is not competitive enough to outshine and battle out its rivals.
It has impressive battery life, good front camera, and decent gaming performance. However, we felt like these offerings weren’t enough to convince consumers to spend Php14K for just that. On the other hand, its most underwhelming feature for us is its 720p display.
The Vivo Y95 is a good smartphone, but we could say that it’s too pricey for its overall performance.
Vivo Y95 Specs:
- Dual SIM, supports LTE connectivity
- 6.22-inch HD+ IPS (1520 x 720) capacitive touchscreen, 270ppi
- Android 8.1 Oreo with Funtouch OS 4.5
- 1.9GHz 64-bit octa-core CPU, Snapdragon 439 chipset, Adreno 505 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB expandable storage
- 13MP + 2 MP with PDAF and LED flash
- 20MP with AI Face Beauty and Screen Flash
- Multimedia Player
- FM Radio
- Bluetooth
- WiFi
- OTG
- GPS with GLONASS, BeiDou
- Sensors: accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity
- Others: Fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock
- Jovi AI
- Google Lens
- Battery: 4030mAh, non-removable
- Colors: Starry Black, Aurora Red
- Price: Php13,999