vivo Y27 Review - Affordable IP54 rated smartphone

After using the vivo Y27 for two weeks, we share our thoughts and experiences with the new affordable mid-ranger with an IP54 rating.

vivo Y27's unique design

To recap, the vivo Y27 has a large 6.65-inch IPS screen, a Helio G85 SoC, 6GB RAM, 128GB of storage, a 5,000mAh battery, 44W fast charging, and a 50MP rear main camera.

In the Philippines, it is priced at PHP 8,999. It is one of the few smartphones under PHP 9K that has an IP water and dust resistance rating.

Let's dive into the review!

For our review part 1: vivo Y27 Unboxing and First Impressions

Multimedia Experience

vivo Y27's screen

In front is the aforementioned 6.64-inch curved IPS screen with an FHD+ 2338 x 1080 resolution.

At least it is FHD+

The panel is surprisingly bright for its price category. It's not the brightest but the screen is nearly readable under direct sunlight. Images on the screen are vibrant and contrasty while the text and details are crisp enough.

The panel supports 10 points of multitouch simultaneously which makes it perfect for complicated taps and gestures simultaneously like in mobile games.

On the upper part of the panel is the notch that houses the front-facing camera. Above it and hidden within the top bezel is the slim earpiece.

Top and bottom 

For audio, the phone is equipped with a 3.5mm audio jack and a single bottom-firing speaker with several microphones around the phone.

At maximum volume, the phone's single speaker will struggle to fill even a small room. To get the best audio quality, we recommend lowering the volume to 85 percent as the sound becomes distorted at max volume. The sound stage is small and clarity is decent but could be better.

The microphones do a decent job of picking up sounds from a meter away while the noise-cancellation for calls is decent too.

Cameras

Rear cameras

As mentioned earlier, the phone is equipped with a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with PDAF and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor with an LED flash.

The stock camera app comes with the following modes: Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, 50MP, Pano, Documents, Slo-Mo, Timelapse, Pro, and Live Photo.

The Pro mode comes with controls for ISO (100-3200), Shutter Speed (1/12,000-32 seconds), EV (+-3), Focus, and White Balance.

Rear Camera Samples

vivo Y27 rear camera daylight 1x

vivo Y27 rear camera daylight 2x

The 50MP primary camera produces daylight images with strong contrast and vibrant color. What is interesting is that even though it has a 50MP sensor, it isn't as sharp as other 50MP cameras we've seen in the past few years. 

The phone crops the image to achieve 2x which is the same image as the 1x but cropped in.

vivo Y27 rear camera indoor 1x

vivo Y27 rear camera indoor 2x

The same can be said for indoor shots. However, we noticed that the highlights (or brightest areas) tend to be exposed quickly which resulted in bright white light sources.

vivo Y27 rear camera lowlight

For low light, the amount of noise is more apparent and the image isn't as sharp as we would like. 

vivo Y27 rear camera night mode

The Night mode significantly improves the sharpness, detail, and contrast while dramatically reducing noise and grain, especially in the shadow area.

Overall, the rear camera produced acceptable images across most situations but will struggle with low light images. We recommend using the night mode in low light whenever possible or when the subject is still.

Selfie camera of the vivo Y27

On the punch hole is the aforementioned 8MP f/2.0 front-facing camera.

Camera mode includes Photo, Video, Portrait, and Night.

Selfie Camera Samples

Selfie daylight

Daylight selfies from the vivo Y27 have decent sharpness and even better contrast and color.

Selfie indoors

Indoors, the image retains the same quality as in daylight. But like the rear cameras, the light sources or highlight areas overexpose quickly.

Selfie portrait

The selfie portrait's bokeh looks unnatural and the edge detection could use tweaking as it struggled with Neil's glasses and hair.

Selfie low light

In low light, the selfie camera's images have dramatically lost sharpness, detail, and color accuracy because of the amount of grain. Like indoor images, the light sources overexposed quickly and became very distracting.

Night mode selfie

The Night mode improves the sharpness, color, and the amount of noise but only if the subject stays still. The software struggled to keep the background sharp because of the longer shutter speed.

We recommend using the Night mode but make sure to keep the subject and the phone still.

Overall, the front cameras produce images with good selfies. However, it struggles with noise and grain in lower light conditions. 

The rear and front-facing cameras can record up to 1080p at 30fps. The footage has acceptable sharpness but is grainy and shaky.

Performance

AnTuTu and GeekBench

To recap, the vivo Y27 features a 12nm MediaTek Helio G85 octa-core processor, Mali-G52 MC2 GPU, 6GB RAM, and 128GB of storage.

3DMark and CPDT benchmarks

vivo Y27 benchmarks:

1. AnTuTu - 270,617
2. Geekbench 6 - 437 (single-core), 1,290 (multi-core)
3. 3D Mark WildLife - 724 at 4.34 average fps 
4. CPDT - 251.77 MB/s sequential read speeds and 107.16 MB/s sequential write speeds

The vivo Y27 scores in AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark are underwhelming as these are some of the lower scores we've seen in the price category lately.

Genshin Impact on the vivo Y27

When playing Genshin Impact at its lowest graphics settings, the phone struggles. We experienced frame rate drops and skipping as soon as we entered combat.

In our experience, the phone can handle basic tasks like navigating through the OS, opening apps, web surfing, social media, and the like but will struggle with intensive tasks like games and multitasking.

For security, the phone has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock. The Initial setup and subsequent uses are quick and it detects our biometrics instantaneously.

The location of the optical fingerprint scanner is lower than we would like. It is within an inch of the chin bezel which makes it awkward to press while keeping the tall phone balanced. 

The face unlocks only struggles when the camera is dirty or when we are wearing a mask and sunglasses. The screen brightens up when used in the dark.

Regarding connectivity, we have the following: WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5, OTG, GPS, and GLONASS. It has slots for two nano SIM cards and a microSD card as well.

vivo Y27 PCMark Battery Benchmark

Inside the phone is a large 5,000mAh battery. With our usual PCMark battery benchmark, the phone suspiciously lasted under 10 hours. This is inconsistent with most smartphones with FunTouchOS we've tried over the years.

In our daily use, it managed to last for just under 6 hours of on-screen time with 23 percent battery left after a long work day while being constantly connected to either WiFi or 5G. Its battery performance is good.

The battery charges via USB-C with the 44W wall charger which charges the phone to 100 percent in under 70 minutes.

vivo Y27 FunTouchOS 13

It is running on FunTouchOS 13 based on Android 13. Visually, it is a slightly more polished version of the previous generation. It adds features that were added with Android 13.

If you didn't like the older FunTouchOS before, odds are you still won't like this one. But if you're a fan of it, you will more likely enjoy the experience.

There are a large number of pre-installed apps and services that can be uninstalled. It adds to the initial setup. Some of these apps have annoying push notifications. We recommend disabling or uninstalling these.

Pros - Eye-catching design, lightweight and solid build materials, IP54 rating, 44W charging, bright screen

Cons - Sluggish performance in gaming, cameras struggle in low light

vivo Y27 Specs

Display: 6.64-inch 2.5D curved LCD (IPS) screen w/ FHD+ 1080 x 2388 resolution at 395 ppi
CPU: 2.0GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G85 octa-core processor
GPU: Mali-G52 MC2 GPU
RAM: 6GB
ROM: 128GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 1TB
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 PDAF + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 8MP f/2.0
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 44W charging
OS: Android 13 w/ Funtouch OS 13
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, proximity
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, loudspeaker, IP54 rating, Face unlock, Colors: Burgundy Black, Sea Blue
Dimensions: 164.1 x 76.2 x 8.1 mm
Weight: 190 g
Price: PHP 8,999

Verdict

Websurfing on the vivo Y27

vivo has produced an interesting smartphone where the focus is on its outward design where it looks more premium than it is priced while giving an IP54 water and dust resistance rating for under PHP 9K.

I also liked its long-lasting battery life of 5,000mAh and the fast 44W wired charging. It's one of the few with this level of fast charging for the price as well.

What surprised us was how bright the screen is and its ability to be near-readable under direct sunlight with the brightness and crisp texts.

Its 12nm MediaTek Helio G85 has been a good processor for years, but it is showing its age even at this price point.

Our other concerns include the dramatic loss of quality in the images from the rear and front-facing cameras in low light. The competition has been performing better than this.

But, if you really like its eye-catching design, IP54 rating, and bright display, go.

What do you think guys?

Build/Design - 4.5

Multimedia Experience - 4.25

Cameras - 3.75

Performance - 3.75

Average - 4/5