vivo Y15A Long Term feature - A good-looking entry-level smartphone
Today, we are sharing our thoughts about the vivo Y15A entry-level smartphone after several of months of usage.
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| Is the vivo Y15A worth the price? |
As a recap, the vivo Y15A is a budget smartphone with a plastic body with a textured back. It has a 6.51-inch 2.5D curved IPS screen with HD+ resolution, MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB expandable storage, 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging, 13MP+2MP rear cameras, and an 8MP selfie camera.
With those specs, this could be a good starting point for those just starting out with smartphones.
For its new PHP 6,999 price tag (from PHP 7,999), is it worth it?
Let's check it out.
Meet the vivo Y15A, a stylish phone for less?
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| vivo Y15A back |
The vivo Y15a comes with a build that you could expect with a budget-level device. It has a polycarbonate back with ridges for added grip. Our unit had the gradient Mystic Blue color. The display is glass but has no mention of any glass protection. It does not mention any IPXX water and dust resistance as well.
At the back of the device, you can see a square-camera bump housing the dual-camera setup with an LED flash. Other than that, there's nothing else at the back. The frame is made out of aluminum and is curved for better grip.
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| vivo Y15A screen |
The screen is a 6.51-inch 2.5D curved LCD (IPS) screen with 1600 x 720 HD+ resolution and 270 ppi pixel density. No high refresh rate here though. It still has a dewdrop notch instead of a punch-hole for the selfie camera. The chin is also slightly thicker as expected from a budget device.
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| The 720p IPS screen is good enough for videos |
In terms of multimedia performance, the vivo Y15A's screen delivers a decent performance. Indoors it is bright enough to read text comfortably and watch videos. Outdoors it struggles though. In terms of contrast and colors, it is ok but can be improved. It did struggle to play some 60fps YouTube videos at 720p and 1080p. It became choppy at times.
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| The top and bottom of the vivo Y15A |
On top of the device, we have the SIM tray. At the bottom, we have the speaker grille, micro USB port, mic, and 3.5mm headphone jack. For audio performance, the speaker is on the softer side of things even at full volume. It is highly recommended to use wired or wireless earphones when consuming media.
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| Right side of the vivo Y15A |
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| The left side of the vivo Y15A |
On the left of the device, we have a smooth side while the right houses the volume rocker and fingerprint reader/power button.
Cameras
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| The dual-camera setup |
The vivo Y15A features a dual-camera setup with a 13MP f/2.2 main sensor + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro sensor with LED flash.
The stock camera app features the usual suspects such as Panorama, Portrait, Photo, Video, Live Photo, Timelapse, Pro, and Documents mode. It also has a dedicated button for the Macro lens in Photo mode. It also has HDR mode and filters.
The Pro Mode has manual controls for EV, ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance, and Autofocus.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Normal daylight shot, gloomy weather |
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| Daylight, 4x zoom |
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| Normal mode, Daylight |
In the normal wide mode, it delivers great image quality given there is ample daylight. It has good colors and contrasts as well. Details do deteriorate the further the objects are. As you can see, the 4x zoom performance is grainy even in daylight.
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| Close-up shot, indoors |
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| Food shot, indoors |
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| Food shot 2, indoors |
In terms of indoor shots, we noticed that it delivers duller colors. The food photos we took are less vibrant than in person. It keeps a lot of the details as evident in the cat's individual fur. It just leaves a lot to be desired in terms of color and brightness though.
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| Close up, low-light |
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| Normal mode, low light |
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| Normal mode, night shot |
The vivo Y15A does not have a dedicated Night Mode. But, it delivered decent low-light photography performance. Yes, there is little to no dynamic range but it is a good enough performance for the price.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Indoors selfie |
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| Indoors selfie, low-light with flash |
For selfies, it has a modest 8MP f/2.0 sensor with a Selfie Softlight Band flash. The selfie camera can be used in Portrait, Photo, and Video Mode.
There is no dedicated Night Mode here for both the rear and selfie cameras.
Performance
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| Geekbench and AnTuTu scores |
Inside, the vivo Y15A features the 2.3GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio P35 octa-core processor, PowerVR GE8320, 4GB RAM, 64GB expandable storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging. It was able to score 123,475 points in the AnTuTu benchmark and 768 Single-Core + 2751 Multi-Core scores in Geekbench 5.
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| LoL: Wild Rift and MLBB settings |
For games, we kept it modest with only a couple of games to try. We tried Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends: Wild Rift in the highest possible settings. We were able to reach at least 60FPS.
Starting the games up triggered vivo's Game Assistant which allows you to focus resources on the game. It was a good addition since it really does need a boost here. It does stutter in high-intensity moments in-game like in team fights though. It is highly recommended to put your game settings into "Smooth" or "Performance" graphics for better results.
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| PCMark battery benchmark result |
In terms of battery, the 5,000mAh battery was able to last for over 14 hours and 42 minutes in our usual PCMark Battery test. In real-world usage with constant connection in WiFi and 4G, we were able to squeeze out 6 to 7 hours of screen time. We used it for calls, texts, chats, video calls, YouTube, and social media scrolling.
The 10W charging is a letdown though taking more than 90 minutes to charge from 10 to 100 percent. Oh, it also charges via micro USB. Yep, no USB-C here.
In terms of connectivity, it has dual-band WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and dual SIM.
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| Homescreen and App Drawer UI for Funtouch OS 11.1 |
The vivo Y15A is running Android 11 with Funtouch OS 11.1. In terms of looks, it is clean and sleek. No clutter or in-your-face effects that could be a bit distracting at times. There are some ads for the app recommendations as expected but they can be ignored or turned off. It has the complete suite of Google apps pre-installed too which is always nice.
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| Settings toggles and Settings app |
Switching between apps can be a bit choppy though. We experienced stutters when switching from YouTube to Facebook. However, we expected this given the SoC it has.
Overall, the vivo Y15A performed as expected for an entry-level device. Normal usages such as social media, browsing, multimedia, and communication worked well, but gaming performance leaves a lot to be desired. vivo didn't design this for gaming, but we've seen other similarly priced devices with better gaming performance.
vivo Y15A Specs
Display: 6.51-inch 2.5D curved LCD (IPS) screen w/ HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution at 270 ppi
CPU: 2.3GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio P35 octa-core processor
GPU: PowerVR GE8320 (680MHz)
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 64GB expandable storage via microSD card slot up to 1TB (dedicated)
Back Camera: 13MP f/2.2 + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 8MP f/2.0 + Selfie Softlight Band
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 10W charging
OS: Android 11 w/ Funtouch OS 11.1
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Colors: Mystic Blue, Wave Green
Dimensions: 163.96 x 75.2 x 8.28 mm
Weight: 179 g
Price: PHP 7,999 (PHP 6,999 new SRP)
Quick thoughts
For us, the vivo Y15A is a device that is hard to recommend at this price point.
It cut corners in aspects that are essential to update nowadays like the lack of a USB-C port, CPU and GPU could be better, fast charging, and better camera system.
When on sale like now, it could be a "good" pickup for those who really want to own a vivo-branded smartphone with a clean-looking backed design and pretty large battery capacity.
Otherwise, look elsewhere.
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