Vivo launched the Y55s smartphone in its Y series last month. The smartphone is priced at Rs 12,490 and comes with 3GB RAM. Let’s see if the phone is worth the price tag in this detailed review.
Box Contents
- Vivo Y55s
- Charging adapter (5V-1A)
- Headset with microphone
- Micro USB cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and warranty information
- Silicon case
Display
The Vivo Y55s has the typical unibody metal design that we have seen in several smartphones. We have the gold variant which blends well with the white bezels present at the top and bottom.
The phone measures 147.9 x 72.9 x 7.5 mm and weighs just 142 grams. Although the phone is lightweight, the build doesn’t feel cheap. Coming to the display, the phone has a 5.2-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) and not a Full HD display which is a bummer. But the HD display is decent and not a total disaster.
There is a unique eye protection mode that ensures a comfortable. Screen brightness by reducing blue light which causes eye strain. It can be used at night and during low light to reduce eye strain. At the top, the phone has a 5MP front-facing camera. Earpiece, and the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors.
There are three capacitive touch buttons on the bezel below the display. The buttons are not backlit but provide haptic feedback.
The SIM slot that holds micro and nano SIM cards is present on the left side. While the right side houses the power/lock button and volume rocker. On the top you have the 3.5mm audio jack, microSD card slot and a microphone. A micro USB port, loudspeaker grill and a secondary microphone are located at the bottom.
The speaker output is loud and clear, but since the grill is only present on the right side. The sound is only focused on one side instead of coming from both sides.
The phone has a metal back which is not too slippery. It has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash on the back with Vivo branding. The 5.2-inch display feels compact to hold. And makes for easy handling, especially for people with smaller hands.
camera
Vivo Y55s has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash which is quite good. Daylight and macro shots came out nicely and produced good color and were decent in terms of clarity. The flash is also good and not too obtrusive. Low light images came out grainy yet weren’t bad.
The camera app is pretty neat and has different modes like HDR. Night, Ultra HD, PPT, Professional, Slow Motion and Time-Lapse. You can take photos by tapping the camera button, saying cheese and showing your palm. Check out the camera sample below. (Click for high-resolution image)
Daylight
The front camera is perfect for selfies, especially if there is good lighting. A face beauty mode offers features like buffing, skin tone and whitening. This mode can be used when taking pictures using the front as well as the rear camera. There is a fair to rosy slider that can be adjusted to your liking.
The phone records videos at 1080p and the clarity is quite good. Audio recording while shooting video is also decent.
Software
Vivo Y55s runs Funtouch OS 3.0 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I personally like the UI as it is quite attractive and offers a lot of customization options. It comes without an app drawer so all apps are front and center. There are dynamic sliding effects that let you choose from different patterns. (Cylinders, turns, jumps, stacks, etc.) in which the screen slides. Various widgets can also be added to the screen.
Next, you can set different home and lock screen wallpapers. Also present are many theme options that can be selected from iTheme. You can even change the font type and size. Sliding down from the bottom of the screen brings out the quick settings panel. It comes with slider controls for display and volume. Below are your quick shortcuts for Wi-Fi, Flashlight, Data. Bluetooth and more You can customize this quick action according to your preference.
Apps The phone has built-in apps EasyShare, WPS Office. VivoCloud, Lock, iTheme, iManager, UC Browser and the usual Google apps along with Duo. Out of the 16GB of internal storage, you get 8.16GB of available space.
There is a smart motion feature that offers various quick actions. Smart wake, smart turn on/off screen, smart call and more. Draw ‘m’ to play music, double tap to turn off the screen.
Wave your palm over the phone to answer hands-free, among others.
There is a smart multi-screen feature which, as the name suggests, splits the screen into two parts. When a message is received with an app running in full screen view, the message will appear as a floating icon. Tapping the icon will split the screen into two. And those apps will appear side by side as you can see in the above screenshot.
The phone has native music and video player. The UI for the music player is simple and clean. It comes with BBE which can be activated while listening to music using earphones. It offers many equalizer options. Audio experience using earphones is decent. As for the FM radio, you can set up six stations and comes with automatic scanning and recording. The UI for the radio is also simple and neat.
Calling and messaging
The dialer and keyboard are fairly standard. But, you can go for Gboard (Google Keyboard) or any third-party keyboard.
Dual SIM and connectivity
Both SIMs (Micro+Nano) support 4G, but you can only enable 4G on one SIM at a time, the other goes to 2G. Other connectivity options of the phone include the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. It doesn’t support NFC though. Call quality is good.
The phone is powered by 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 processor with Adreno 308 GPU and comes with 3GB of RAM. It performs well and does not fail during multi-tasking. We didn’t experience any lag during our testing period. Gaming performance is also decent and the phone doesn’t heat up most of the time.
The phone has a 2,730mAh battery which is good. Has low power consumption and super power-saving mode.
It achieves a one charge rating of 9 hours 42 minutes due to its excellent talk time. We’ll bring you the full set of battery life test results soon.
Conclusion
The Vivo Y55s is a decent phone that scores in the camera department as the images are crisp. Clear and bring out good colors. It has a good build and is light. But, at a price point of Rs. 12,490 phone lacks a fingerprint sensor which is a bummer. It supports dual SIM cards and has a dedicated micro SD card slot which is great. To sum it up, here are the pros and cons.
