It’s been a while since I’ve used a phone below PHP10,000, so my expectations for the vivo Y27 were modest. Still, over the course of my time with it, the phone surprisingly grew on me. It’s not perfect by any means, but it does well in most of the things that count toward being a good daily driver, such as gaming, battery life, and multitasking. Read on for my detailed thoughts on this new budget mid-range device from vivo.
Design: 4/5
Our vivo Y27 review unit came in Burgundy Black which looks dark and muted at first, but shimmers in a pretty burgundy when hit by light. It comes in a scratch-resistant matte finish.
Taking a tour of the vivo Y27, the back is populated with an etched vivo logo on the bottom left with the camera module sitting on the upper left. Specifically, the phone has two huge camera assemblies—the 50MP main camera being the topmost and the 2MP depth camera sitting below it—flanked by a lone flash module on the right. Around the edges, you’ll find the left side bare, while the right houses the volume rocker and fingerprint-enabled power button. At the top edge is an ejectable tray that takes up to two nano SIM cards plus a dedicated microSD slot. Lastly, the bottom contains a 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone pinhole, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille.
The phone’s face has a 6.64-inch display occupying 85.4% of the screen with a teardrop notch for the 8MP front camera. If you look really closely, you can just barely make out the call ear speaker grille along the top side.
The aesthetics of the phone are solid. I just wish that the gold rings surrounding the camera modules came in a more muted tone (perhaps in Burgundy Black as well) to make the backside look cleaner.
Hardware: 4/5
The vivo Y27 comes equipped with an octa-core MediaTek MT6769 Helio G85 clocked at 2.0GHz on the two faster cores and 1.8GHz on the rest, with a Mali-G52 MC2 GPU dedicated to running graphics. While the three-year-old SoC is definitely nearing the end of its welcome, it should still perform decently in most everyday tasks. It is backed by 6GB of dedicated RAM and 6GB of extended RAM which uses part of the phone’s 128GB internal storage to serve as an additional buffer for running more apps. Should you need all the storage you want, you’ll be glad to know that the phone is microSD expandable up to 1TB.
The display is a 6.64-inch 2388 x 1080px IPS Full HD panel with up to 600nits of brightness. The cameras at the rear are spec’d at 50MP f/1.8 for the main and 2MP f/2.4 for the depth, along with an 8MP f/2.0 selfie shooter at the front. Powering the phone is a 5000mAh battery pack chargeable by the included 44W fast charger. To help with costs, the vivo Y27’s body is made out of 2.5D plastic. Still, it feels solid in hand with no flexing anywhere and is even rated IP54 dust and water-resistant.
Overall, it’s pretty standardly kitted for this segment, but the 44W fast charging capability and IP54 rating makes the vivo Y27 stand out.
User Experience: 4/5
Given the vivo Y27’s price point and spec sheet, I did not expect the phone to blow me away with its performance. Given this, I was pleasantly surprised with how it fared in everyday use, gaming, and battery life.
As a daily driver, the vivo Y27 was able to do all I needed it to do. App load times were decent. Switching between apps was quite smooth as well, and there was virtually no app reloading when switching between popular social media apps. Viewing multimedia on the vivo Y27 was also enjoyable thanks to its large screen and decently loud speakers.
For performance benchmarks, the phone scored 6,742 in the PCMark Work 3.0 Performance test; 727 in the 3DMark Wild Life test with an average frame rate of 4.35; and 403 and 1,186 single and multi-core scores, respectively, for the Geekbench 6 CPU Benchmark. These scores translate to a decent gaming experience.
Asphalt 9 ran smoothly on the highest graphic settings even with tons of particle effects happening on screen. For MOBAs, both Mobile Legends and Pokémon Unite ran smoothly even on high graphic preset settings. Call of Duty Mobile was limited to medium graphics and High frame rate settings as the maximum selectable, but gameplay was generally smooth across both Multiplayer and Battle Royale modes. However, if you’re the type who desires the finest precision control over your reticle, then be warned that hiccups here and there are inevitable. Dropping to lower graphic settings resulted in a smoother experience, though. Diablo Immortal is playable at Very High graphics quality preset with image sharpening turned on, even with mobs of monsters around. However, the vivo Y27 only supports image accuracy up to Medium and frame rate up to 30—higher settings are inaccessible. Lowering graphics settings and reducing eye candy led to a more consistently smooth performance in the world of Sanctuary.
The vivo Y27 features the Ultra Game Mode and Multi-Turbo 5.5 sidebar, which boosts performance by minimizing non-gaming-related loads and dedicating resources to the game on screen. Select games are also supported by the phone’s Frame-rate Priority setting, which renders images at a lower resolution to improve performance. Using this for Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal, I found the gameplay to be much smoother, although graphics were not as crisp versus this setting off.
In terms of battery life, the vivo Y27 lasted well over 13 hours in the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life test, where the phone went from 100% to 20% battery with airplane mode on, screen at 50% brightness, and volume at full blast. In real-world use, I was consistently able to go a full day with data and Wi-Fi hotspot always on, and intermittent social media use, gaming, browsing, and taking photos. When I did need to charge it, the vivo Y27 took around just one hour to go from 0 to 100% using the bundled 44W Fast Charge power brick and Type-C cable.
Given its price point, the vivo Y27’s imaging capabilities are to be expected. When in brightly lit environments, photos are good enough for social media use. However, like most of its peers, it is challenged by less-than-ideal scenarios, such as dim lighting, high contrast, or wide dynamic range situations. Good thing that the vivo Y27 comes with a Super Night Mode shooting option which allows it to pull in more light for better-looking images, as long as you can hold the phone still for a few seconds. The video outputs are also quite okay, though the resolution only goes up to 1080p at 30fps for both front and rear shooters.
Value: 4/5
Overall, the vivo Y27 is a good phone with a competitive price tag of PHP8,999. It performs well for everyday use and even has some gaming chops to spare. The screen is huge and bright, making it great for consuming multimedia. The 44W fast charging capability is one of the fastest in this segment, and it’s even rated IP54 dust and water-resistant. It only really underwhelms with its shooters, but for everything else, it’s properly decent. If your budget maxes out at PHP 9,000 and you want to squeeze every last bit of value out of it, then definitely consider the vivo Y27.
Specifications:
- Display: 6.64-inch 2388 x 1080 px Full HD IPS display
- Processor: MediaTek MT6769 Helio G85 with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU
- OS: Funtouch 13 (Android 13)
- RAM: 6GB + 6GB Extended RAM
- Storage: 128GB, microSD expandable up to 1TB
- Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8 (main rear); 2MP f/2.4 (depth rear); 8MP f/2.0 (front); rear flash
- Connectivity: 4G LTE; Wi-Fi 5; Bluetooth 5.0; GPS; USB Type-C; dual nano-SIM, dual standby
- Battery: 5000mAh, 44W vivo Fast Charge
- Others: Side-mounted Fingerprint Scanner; 2.5D Plastic Material; IP54 dust and water-resistance
- Dimensions: 164.1 x 76.2 x 8.1 mm
- Weight: 190g
- Colors: Burgundy Black and Sea Blue
What’s Hot:
- Huge battery with one of the fastest charging standards at this price point
- Screen is nice and bright
- Handles demanding games surprisingly well
- Solid plastic build
What’s Not:
- Processor is really showing its age
- Underwhelming cameras
Bottomline:
It’s not perfect, but the vivo Y27 will get the job done.
Reviewed and Photos by Chris Noel Hidalgo
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE September 2023 Issue.