Is the Vivo Y53 Worth It?

While Vivo’s best sellers in the country may be their phones that were created with intention of taking the perfect selfie, the Chinese brand has also brought their more affordable Y line to our shores. The latest one to arrive at Unbox HQ is the Vivo Y53; their entry-level device that is priced at Php 6,990. Should you consider this device for your next buy? Let’s find out.

Vivo Y53 Specifications

• 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor quad-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• Adreno 308 GPU
• 5-inch qHD display; 960×540 resolution (220ppi)
• 16GB of expandable storage (up to 256GB)
• 8-megapixel rear camera, LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera
• 3G, LTE
• Dual SIM
• WiFi, Bluetooth
• GPS, A-GPS
• 2,500mAh battery
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow, FunTouch OS 3.0

Back to Basics

We’ve been handling a lot of high-tiered and flagship smartphones in the last few weeks; all of which had different material choices and kick-ass features to lure you in to spending a huge amount of cash. Since the Vivo Y53 is more of an entry-level device that has been priced almost a fifth of some of the phones we currently have for review at Unbox HQ, it’s no surprise that it’s lacking in some of the features that give us a few more conveniences.

The Y53 may not have any fancy features, but the Chinese brand didn’t skimp on build quality; no flex or play to be found here.

The Screen Leaves You Wanting

If there’s one thing we found ourselves wanting on the Vivo Y53 was the inclusion of at least an HD screen. While the the display has really good viewing angles and pretty decent sunlight legibility, you’re only getting qHD resolution.

If you guys can’t tell by the reviews I’ve personally done in the past, I tend to watch a ton of YouTube videos on the device and I desperately wanted to bump it up to a  higher quality. A bit of a silver-lining is that since you can only play videos at 480p, mobile data consumption isn’t as heavy and doesn’t too much of a toll on the battery life of the Y53.

A Good Balance of Internals

We may be feeling a little salty with the resolution of the screen, but certainly understand the reasons behind it. Let’s talk about the internals as a recap.

The Vivo Y53 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core processor that has been paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. On paper, that may not seem very interesting but Vivo has been able to nicely balance out their choice of internals; creating a very capable budget device.

This means that the Vivo Y53 actually performs smoothly under load. Now, you won’t be heavily multitasking on the device or playing the most graphically intensive games, but as an everyday phone — for taking calls, responding to email, plus browsing through your social media feeds — it gets the job done and it does it well.

Surprisingly Good Camera… For a Budget Device

To our surprise the photos we took using the Vivo Y53 actually turned out better than we were expecting; all things considered, of course. We’re not saying you’ll get the same picture quality than that of the V5 or the V5 Plus, but they’re pretty good coming from a phone that’s more than half the price of those two devices.

Photos tend to come out a little warm and as always expect to see some noise once lighting conditions go south. Vivo has also built-in an Ultra HD Photo mode that’s supposed to stitch together photos to give you an even better one, but it didn’t quite work as well as advertised, so we stuck with shooting on auto and had better results there.

Lasting Power from a 2500mAh Battery

Despite having a 2500mAh battery, the Vivo Y53 actually lasts through the day with moderate use. Running our usual battery benchmark test on PCMark, gave it a time of 8 hours and 1 minute. This all a product of not having to push as many pixels and the power efficient SoC running the show.

Verdict: Stacked Against Stiff Competiton

On its own merits, you can already tell that we think that the Vivo Y53 is a pretty solid phone given its Php 6,990 price tag, but the competition in the sub-15k to sub-10k price point is heavily stacked.

On one hand, you have phones from local brands or other Chinese manufacturers that provide a few more features than what the Y53 is offering. On the other, there’s always the option of saving up a little more to be able to purchase a device with a bit more oomph.