Vivo Y53 Unboxing, Initial Review: A Notch Below the Y55?

Vivo Y53 Unboxing, Initial Review: A Notch Below the Y55?

Affordable Alternatives

While you may know Vivo more for their selfie-centric, V series smartphones, the Chinese company has a beefy array of mid-ranged smartphones that won’t break the bank. Towards the end of 2016, they released the Y55; a smartphone sporting a Snapdragon 430, paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Hoping to offer another smartphone for those on a tighter budget, the company’s local arm brought over the Vivo Y53 that arrived last March. Today, we’re going to take it out of its packaging to give it you our initial impressions of this mid-ranged phone.

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

What’s in the Box?

Just like any other smartphones from Vivo, the Y53 came in a clean, white cardboard box that displays the product with a highlight of its spec on the back. Crack it open and you’ll see the device itself that has a pre-installed screen protector; our review unit came in Space Grey.

Inside the box, you’ll be getting the phone’s accompanying documentation, a SIM tray ejector, USB wall charge, microUSB cable, and headphones. Something we were sorely missing from the usual contents was a jelly case that Vivo has always included in the past.

Initial Impressions: A Step Down from the Y55

You may have noticed by now, but smartphones in the mid-ranged segment that come from Chinese players look pretty much the same and that holds true with the Vivo Y53. The Vivo Y53 sports a unibody design that’s made of metal with rounded edges for better ergonomics. Since it is a 5-inch device, we don’t see any trouble handling the device and it does sit nicely in our hands. It’s light at 137 grams but feels solidly built.

Let’s take a quick tour of the device, starting at the back where you have its 8-megapixel rear camera and its LED flash.

On the right side is the volume rocker and the power button right below it.

Moving on over to the left side and you’ll see its SIM card tray. We appreciate the fact that it isn’t a hybrid slot and can actually take two SIM cards plus a microSD card. Good job, Vivo.

On the bottom of the phone is its microUSB port and its speaker grille.

On the front of the device is its 5-inch display, which gives the Y53 a screen-to-body ratio of 67.7-percent. We’re a little disappointed that its only qHD (that’s 960×540), but that decision might have been made to prolong the device’s battery life. The bezels on the side of the display are a reasonable size with just enough on the top and the bottom to house the 5-megapixel front camera and the capacitive navigation keys respectively.

The Vivo Y53 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 that clocks in 1.4GHz. This has been paired up with 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage that Vivo Philippines’ Facebook page can take up to a 256GB microSD card. Initial navigation thought the phone is smooth with apps launching quickly as well. All of this runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Vivo’s FunTouch OS v3.0 and is juiced up by a 2500mAh battery.

That’s pretty much it for this unboxing and initial review for the Vivo Y53. We’ll have to take the phone through its paces over the course of the next few days to give you our full review for this mid-ranged device. The Vivo Y53 is priced at Php 6,990.

Check out our reviews for Vivo’s Smartphones:

Vivo V3 Review: Smaller Size, Max Performance
Vivo V3 Max Review: Arriving With A Bang
Vivo V5 Review: Coming for the Selfie Throne
Vivo V5 Plus Review: All Hype or All Right?
Vivo V5 Lite Unboxing, Initial Review: Affordable Selfie Phone

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