vivo Y100 Full Review
Last week, we unboxed and shared our initial thoughts on the vivo Y100, which is vivo’s offering in the competitive budget midrange market. The vivo Y100 comes with a 120Hz AMOLED display, a peak brightness of 1,800 nits, dual stereo speakers, a 5,000mAh battery with 80W flash charge technology, and the reintroduction of the photochromic design.
With this review, we will delve deeper into the smartphone's features to help you decide if it's the right fit for your needs.
Design and Walk Around
As we discussed during the unboxing and first impression of the device. The vivo Y100 reintroduces the color-changing photochromic body design, which is available only in the Breeze Green variant. When exposed to UV light or sunlight, the back panel undergoes a color-changing effect. Additionally, the fluorite AG glass is less susceptible to fingerprint smudges and scratches.
The vivo Y100 is available in two colors: Breeze Green and Crystal Black, both inspired by nature's beauty. My unit comes in the Breeze Green color. What’s unique about this color is that when the back panel is exposed to direct sunlight for 3 seconds, the whole back panel changes its color from light green shade to a deeper green.
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| vivo Y100 back panel when unexposed to sunlight |
In addition to its design, the Breeze Green variant weighs 196g and has a thickness of 7.95mm. With its flat frame, the vivo Y100 is sleek to look at and comfortable to hold.
The vivo Y100 features a 6.67-inch FullHD+ (1080 x 2400) 120Hz AMOLED display on the front. It has a centered hole-punch camera with a gold border at the top, along with an earpiece that also functions as a speaker discreetly positioned above the display. The in-display fingerprint reader is located below the screen, and the phone comes with a pre-installed screen protector for added protection.
The back of the phone features a rectangular-shaped contemporary design camera module. At first glance, it looks like it has three cameras, but it actually contains two cameras and an LED flash. According to vivo, the third element in the module houses the flicker sensor. The two cameras are a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth camera.
On the right side, you'll find the standard volume rocker button and power button.
The top of the phone has a secondary noise-canceling microphone, while the bottom features a USB Type-C charging port, downward-firing speaker, microphone, and hybrid SIM tray. The hybrid SIM tray can accommodate either a second SIM card or a microSD card for additional storage. Unfortunately, the phone does not include a 3.5mm audio jack.
Display and Multimedia
The vivo Y100 is a smartphone with a large 6.67-inch AMOLED screen featuring a 1080 x 2400 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
The AMOLED display produces vibrant colors and boasts excellent viewing angles. With a peak brightness of 1,800 nits, the highest in its class, it can automatically adjust to ensure clear visibility outdoors.
The vivo Y100 has decent stereo speakers that can produce loud sounds up to 300%. It also has Hi-Res certification. However, for better audio quality, it is recommended to use headphones or a Bluetooth-enabled external speaker.
Camera
Rear Cameras
The vivo Y100 is equipped with a dual-camera setup featuring a 50MP F1.8 primary camera with Pixel Phase Detection autofocus (PDAF) and a 2MP F2.4 depth lens.
Under bright lighting conditions, the rear camera captures vibrant and accurate colors with crisp and sharp details. However, the dynamic range needs improvement in some scenarios.
In indoor and low-light settings, photos can appear muddy in certain situations even with the Night Mode feature turned on, but they are still good enough for casual social media postings.
Front Selfie Camera
The front-facing camera is an 8MP F2.0 aperture camera that produces decent-quality photos, especially in well-lit conditions. The portrait mode background blurring is not perfect, but it still does a good job.
Video
The vivo Y100 supports up to 1080p@30fps for video recording for both main and front-facing cameras. However, the recorded video from the main camera may appear shaky due to the lack of image stabilization.
Funtouch OS, Apps, and Security
The vivo Y100 operates on a customized user interface called Funtouch OS 14, which is based on the Android 14 operating system. The phone comes with the standard vivo and Google suite of apps pre-installed, along with some bloatware apps that I deleted to free up space.
Security-wise, the vivo Y100 features an in-display fingerprint scanner and facial recognition to unlock the device. Both methods work well, with the fingerprint scanner being notably fast and accurate. However, the face unlock feature can be slower in low-light situations.
Hardware and Performance
The vivo Y100 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 processor, featuring a 6nm manufacturing process. It comprises four Cortex-A73 cores clocked up to 2.8GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked up to 1.9GHz, along with an Adreno 610 GPU.
When used for casual and moderate tasks, the vivo Y100 operates smoothly. However, when playing graphics-intensive games, slight stutters and lags might be experienced. It is advisable to use medium to lowest settings to enhance the gaming experience.
The vivo Y100 supports Extended RAM 4.0 technology, enabling users to expand the phone's RAM virtually using its internal storage, resulting in a total RAM capacity of up to 16GB when utilizing the 8GB internal storage expansion.
In the Philippines, the vivo Y100 is available with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. Upon unboxing, my 256GB unit had already used 25.10GB of storage. For those needing more storage, it can be expanded up to 1TB via the hybrid SIM tray.
Furthermore, the realme Y100 comes equipped with an IP54 Dust & Water Resistance rating, providing added protection against accidental splashes and other incidents.
Benchmark scores for the device are as follows:
- AnTuTu v10.2.9 – 370,206
- AnTuTu Storage Test v10.2.9 – 50,648 (947.3 MB/s Seq. Read, 831.0 MB/s Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 6.3.0 – 471 (Single-core), 1,535 (Multi-core)
- PCMark – 7,276 (Work 3.0)
- 3DMark – 1,502 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1), 1,536 (SSE – Vulkan)
Battery Life, Charging, and Connectivity
The vivo Y100 comes with a massive 5,000mAh battery. In my experience, the phone can last an entire day with moderate usage without needing an additional charge. According to the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, this device scored approximately 16 hours and 36 minutes.
Furthermore, the vivo Y100's 80W FlashCharge allows the 5,000mAh battery to be charged from 0 to 80 percent in just 30 minutes. Additionally, the vivo Y100 offers Overnight Charging Protection, allowing for all-night research and projects without worry of overcharging. The system intelligently manages charging stages for safe and slow battery aging.
In terms of connectivity, the vivo Y100 offers features such as dual-SIM (nano-SIM), WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and USB Type-C.
vivo Y100 Specifications
6.67-inch FullHD+ (1080 x 2400) AMOLED display, 395ppi
120Hz refresh rate / 1800 nits (peak)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 processor, 6nm
Adreno 610 GPU
8GB RAM (LPDDR4X)
128GB/256GB of internal storage (UFS 2.2)
microSD up to 1TB (hybrid slot)
Dual-rear cameras (50MP F1.8 main + 2MP F2.4 depth)
8MP F2.0 front camera
Dual-SIM (nano) / 4G LTE
WiFi 5 / Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS
Dual-stereo Speakers / USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
5,000mAh Battery with 80W Fast Charge
Colors: Crystal Black and Breeze Green
Dimension:
- 163.17 × 75.81 × 7.79 mm (Crystal Black)
- 163.17 × 75.81 × 7.95 mm (Breeze Green)
Weight:
- 186g (Crystal Black)
- 196g (Breeze Green)
What’s inside the box
If you haven't seen the unboxing of the vivo Y100 yet, the box contained the smartphone itself, SIM card ejector tool, quick start guide, important information (including the Warranty Card), USB power adapter, USB type-C to USB-A charging cable, and silicone case.
Price and Availability
The vivo Y100 comes in two variants: one with 8GB RAM and 256GB ROM priced at Php13,999, and another with 8GB RAM and 128GB ROM priced at Php12,499. You can buy the vivo Y100 at all vivo concept stores, kiosks, and online through the official website, Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok.
Verdict
The vivo Y100 is a very capable smartphone in its price range. It offers an AMOLED display, dual speakers, and a long-lasting battery life with 80W charging. It also features a stylish (photochromic) design that sets it apart from the competition.
However, there are downsides, such as its performance, lack of 5G connectivity, and camera quality.
Is this the smartphone you are looking for? With the very competitive market for budget mid-range smartphones, it's worth considering the vivo Y100.
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