vivo Y35 Review - A lot of storage and strong battery performance!
We share our thoughts and experiences with the vivo Y35 after over two months as a daily driver.
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| vivo Y35 |
To recap, the vivo Y35 features a 90Hz 6.58-inch LCD display with a 2408 x 1080 resolution. Inside is the 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor, Adreno 610 GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 44W Fast Charging.
At the back are the 50MP primary camera, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor with an LED flash while in front is a 16MP selfie camera.
inside the phone is a 6nm Snapdragon 680 SoC, 8GB RAM, 256GB of storage, and a large 5,000mAh battery with 44W fast charging.
In the Philippines, the phone is priced at PHP 14,999.
Let's dive into the full review.
Multimedia Experience
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| Display |
In front is the 6.58-inch curved LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and 2408 x 1080 resolution. The image produced is sharp and detailed with vibrant color and good contrast. At maximum brightness, the panel is readable under direct sunlight.
It has a 90Hz refresh rate and 10 points of multitouch which results in responsive and accurate taps and gestures.
There is no mention of any form of glass protection. But again, it does have a pre-installed screen protector.
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| Top and bottom |
For audio, vivo Y35 has a single bottom-firing grille speaker. The sound is surprisingly loud and it is clear enough. The maximum volume is so loud that even if we cover the grills with our hands, the sound is still heard. However, at maximum volume, the sound has significant distortion.
We used our pair of earphones to try and test its 3.5mm headphone slot. The sound is a better experience than the speakers so we recommend that you use your own earphones.
The microphones pick up sounds from a meter away. It does a decent pick-up of sound while the noise-cancellation for calls is decent.
Cameras
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| Rear cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the back camera module is made up of a 50MP f/1.8 primary camera, 2MP f/2.4 macro, and 2MP f/2.4 depth camera.
The stock camera app has the following modes: Photo, Portrait, Night, Video, Live Photo, Pro, Pano, Time-lapse, Double Exposure, 50MP, Slo-mo, and Documents.
The PRO mode allows for controls of white balance, exposure compensation (+-3), ISO (50-3200), and shutter speed (32s to 1/1200s).
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight 1x |
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vivo Y35's rear 50MP camera allows it to take 1x and 2x whereas the 2x uses the full resolution to crop in. Even though the images are from a 50MP sensor, the images are not as sharp and detailed as we expected. Otherwise, the contrast and color are good. However, sometimes, exposure is a hit or miss.
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| Close-up |
Our concern with sharpness and detail is still present in the close-up shots. The in-focus area is also shallow when up close.
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| Indoors 1x |
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| Indoors 2x |
Indoors, the images retain the quality of daylight. The colors and contrast are great but the sharpness could be better.
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| Lowlight 1x |
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| Lowlight 2x |
For low light, the images are surprising. there is a minimal amount of noise that slightly softens the image but it is well controlled.
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| Night 1x |
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| Night 2x |
The night mode further decreases the amount of noise which improves sharpness and recovering color and details in the shadow areas.
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| Front facing camera |
On the notch in front is the 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera.
Only the Photo, Video, Portrait, and Night modes are available.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Daylight selfie |
The selfie camera takes images with vibrant colors and deep contrast. It is sharp enough but there are phones with sharper cameras in the price range. Otherwise, the cameras are good enough in daylight.
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| Indoor selfie |
Indoors, it is similar to daylight with good color, contrast, and sharpness.
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| Low light selfie |
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| Night selfie |
In low light, vivo Y35's selfie cameras have more grain/noise which softened the image. However, the color and contrast remain decent.
Overall, the rear and front cameras produce images with good color and contrast but struggle with sharpness and detail.
The vivo Y35's rear camera can capture up to 720 at 60fps or 1080 at 30fps while the selfie camera can capture up to 1080p at 30 fps only.
The footage is similar to the photos where the color and contrast are fine while the sharpness could be better. It has a bit of EIS too. However, because it lacks OIS, the footage is noticeably shaky.
Performance
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| AnTuTu and GeekBench |
To recap, vivo Y35 carries a 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor, Adreno 610 GPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage.
The chip is not that fast for the price, but it has plenty of storage...
This also has the so-called "Extended RAM" tech that gives an extra up to 8GB RAM using its internal storage for a total of up to 16GB RAM. In our experience, it helps a little in making the phone a bit smoother when opening many apps. But, don't expect it to perform as well as its primary physical RAM.
So far we have yet to run a workload heavy enough to utilize it.
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| 3DMark and CPDT |
vivo Y35 benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 289,747
- Geekbench 5 - 376 (single-core), 1,534 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife - 441at 2.60 average fps
- CPDT - 482.41 MB/s sequential read speeds and 414.19 sequential write speeds
The vivo Y35's scores are good but may look underperforming when compared to similarly priced smartphones.
During the benchmark run, the phone did warm up but by under 2 degrees only. Very Impressive.
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| Genshin Impact |
It managed to unlock the lowest graphics settings of Genshin Impact as the default. The gameplay is mostly smooth until the screen fills up with objects and animations. The phone also warmed up after an extended play session.
Our issue? Snapdragon 680 lags behind the competition in terms of speed. There are many phones in the under PHP 15K category that carries a more powerful chip, a lot of them even have 5G.
Case in point, even the company's own vivo Y76 5G comes with the said new generation connectivity option for the same price.
For security, vivo Y35 has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock. Initial set-up and subsequent uses are almost instantaneous. Either Face Unlock or the fingerprint sensors failed. The sensor only struggled when our fingers were filled with dirt.
In terms of connectivity, we have the following: WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, and dual SIM.
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| Battery usage and benchmark |
Inside the phone is a large 5,000mAh battery. It managed to last for 19 hours and 6 minutes with our usual PCMark battery benchmark.
Strong battery life!
In our daily use, it managed to last for more than 8 hours of on-screen time. At one point it managed to last for 2 days where we recorded around 13 hours of on-screen time.
The massive battery charges via USB-C with the 44W charger. It takes around 60 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent.
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| FunTouchOS 12 |
It is running on FunTouchOS 12 based on Android 12. The UI has been a staple for over a few years now. Like the rest of FunTouchOS 12, it is visually pleasing and is power efficient but in our experience, we were consistently bombarded with ads (download or install) notifications.
There is a number of preinstalled apps and services that can be uninstalled. It adds to the initial setup. Some apps can only be disabled which was the only way to stop the annoying notifications.
We recommend wearing the included case right away too.
Pros - Beautiful design, lightweight and solid body, 90Hz LCD panel, long battery life
Cons - Cameras are good but could be sharper, Price
vivo Y35 Specs
Display: 6.58-inch 2.5D curved LCD screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, FHD+ 2408 x 1080 resolution at 401 ppi
CPU: 2.4GHz 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 610
RAM: 8GB
ROM: 256GB expandable storage via microSD card slot up to 1TB
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.0
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 44W Fast Charging
OS: Android 12 w/ Funtouch OS 12
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, IP54 water and dust resistance, Hi-Res Audio, USB-C, Colors: Agate Black, Dawn Gold
Dimensions: 164.3 x 76.1 x 8.28 mm
Weight: 182 g
Price: PHP 14,999
Verdict
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| Web surfing |
vivo Y35 has the looks of a higher-priced phone. It is lightweight and visually eye-catching.
Moreover, what could make you consider this handset is its large 8GB RAM + 8GB Extended RAM (total of up to 16GB) and 256GB internal storage. Not many have 256GB for your files and more at this price point.
The display is also super bright, vibrant, and detailed while being responsive to touch and gestures while the 90Hz panel makes the experience smooth in games and in normal use.
The 5,000mAh battery managed to achieve 19 hours in our PCMark battery test while managing to consistently get 8 hours of on-screen time in daily use.
The camera is decent with great color, contrast, and noise/grain control but lacks sharpness.
However, it has a similar performance to phones priced slightly lower than it.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.5
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4
Performance - 4.25
Average - 4.25/5
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