After a string of premium launches in the vivo V30 and V30 Pro a few weeks ago, vivo has finally launched its upper entry-level offering: the vivo Y100. How does it fare as the brand’s newest affordable device? Find out below.
Design: 4/5
The vivo Y100 is available in Crystal Black and Breeze Green colorways, of which we were able to review the latter. The light green of the back panel features dynamic feather-like visual texturing which dances with the light. The matte-finish of the Fluorite AG back glass ensures a scratch- and smudge-free, but slightly slippery, handling experience. Meanwhile, the camera island is colored in glossy—not feathered—emerald green and features three stacked camera lenses and an LED flash module. The lenses protrude out as to be the first point of contact with the surface when laying the phone screen-side up. Thankfully, the vivo Y100 comes with a free clear case out of the box which provides protection to the great-looking back panel and camera modules, as well as adds much needed gripiness.
Up front is the huge 6.67-inch AMOLED Display with a punch hole camera along the top side and the in-display fingerprint scanner along the bottom. It also comes with a free pre-installed protective film as defense against nicks and scratches. The vivo Y100’s right edge houses the power button and volume rockers; the top has a microphone pinhole and one of the grille-less speakers; the left is bare; and the bottom has the SIM-microSD card combo tray, another microphone pinhole, a USB Type-C slot, and the other stereo speaker, this time with a grille.
Physically, the vivo Y100 comes in either a 163.17 × 75.81 × 7.79 mm form factor for the Crystal Black version, and slightly thicker 163.17 × 75.81 × 7.95 mm for the Breeze Green color. The green one is also slightly heavier at 196g versus 186g for the black palette.
It’s an overall solid design. However, like my gripe with other entry-level phones, the camera island design could have been made more aesthetically pleasing.
Hardware: 4/5
Running the vivo Y100 is a 6-nanometer octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 processor clocked at a maximum 2.8GHz on the four faster A73 cores and up to 1.9GHz on the four A53 cores. It’s quite decent—not the most powerful chipset out there, but it should handle light gaming and day-to-day use just fine. It is paired with an Adreno 610 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of microSD expandable storage.
Display-wise, the vivo Y100 features a 6.67-inch, 2400 x 1080 FHD+ AMOLED Display with a punch hole “Dotch” cutout for the selfie shooter, pixel density of around 395ppi, a high 120Hz refresh rate, and local peak brightness of up to 1200 nits.
For the cameras, the vivo Y100 has a 50MP main shooter supported by a 2MP bokeh camera, a flicker sensor, an LED flash node, and electronic image stabilization available via the in-app camera settings. Up front, it has an 8MP selfie camera. Videos max out at 1080p 30fps for both front and rear lenses, with a higher frame capture rate of 60fps available at the back but only at 720p.
The vivo Y100 is powered by a 5000mAh battery chargeable with the 80W vivo FastCharge power brick and Type-C Cable. vivo touts it can charge up to 80% in just 30 minutes.
What stands out with the vivo Y100’s hardware are the dual stereo speakers, which not even some higher spec’d phones have. Combined with the huge screen, it should make the vivo Y100 a great device for content consumption.
User Experience: 4/5
The vivo Y100 encapsulates all you could want in an entry-level phone: decent performance, large and expandable storage, large screen, loud speakers, and fast charging.
For the benchmarks, the vivo Y100 scored the following: 654 on the 3D Mark Wild Life test; 7,671 on the PCMark Work 3.0 Benchmark; 473 on the Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core test; 1,508 on the Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-Core test; and 380 on the Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL test. For storage, it scored 390.13 MB/s on sequential writes and 378.27 MB/s on sequential reads using the Cross Platform Disk Test. It’s certainly not the fastest phone out there, but it should get the job done.
And get the job done it did. It is decently responsive, being able to switch between apps fluidly, thanks in part to the 120Hz display refresh rate. Lighter games such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Pokemon Unite, and Asphalt 9: Legends were all easy tasks even on the highest settings. With Call of Duty Mobile and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: The Definite Edition, settings had to be dialed back to at most medium for the experience to be as smooth as needed for the fast and dynamic on-screen action. Meanwhile, NBA 2K Mobile was just barely playable on the lowest possible graphics settings.
For the cameras, the vivo Y100’s shooters perform decently under good lighting. Meanwhile, shots in darker or mixed-lighting scenarios were not as good, but still usable for casual social media posting. Selfies also turned out quite decent.
In terms of battery life, the vivo Y100 lasted a lengthy 16 hours and 13 minutes on the PCMark Work 3.0 Benchmark with audio at full and brightness at 50%. Charging took around an hour to go from completely dead to 100% using the bundled 80W vivo Fast Charger.
Where the vivo Y100 shines is as a content consumption device. Watching videos on the big 120Hz screen coupled with the dual stereo speakers is great, especially since it gets decently loud without garbling the audio.
Value: 3.5/5
The vivo Y100 is priced at PHP12,499 for the 128GB variant and PHP13,999 for the 256GB option. It’s facing stiff competition in this segment, but it makes a case for itself thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate and dual stereo speakers, which are quite unique at this price point. If you want a portable binge-watching device that can chug along acceptably for day-to-day use, then definitely consider the vivo Y100.
Test it out by visiting your nearest vivo concept store or kiosk, and order it on the official vivo website, and Lazada, Shopee, and Tiktok pages. Additionally, keep watch on these links for upcoming sales as you may get the chance to snag the vivo Y100 for even less than the sticker price!
Specifications:
- Display: 6.67-inch, 2400 x 1080 FHD+ AMOLED Dotch Display with 120Hz refresh rate
- Processor: Snapdragon 685
- OS: Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256GB microSD expandable
- Camera: 50MP f/1.8 (main rear); 2MP f/2.4 (depth rear); 8MP f/2.0 (front)
- Connectivity: 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, OTG, USB 2.0 Type-C, dual nano-SIM
- Battery: 5000mAh, vivo 80W Fast Charge with Super Charge Pump
- Others: In-display Fingerprint Scanner, Dual Stereo Speakers, IP54 dust and water resistance
- Dimensions: 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),
- Colors: Crystal Black, Breeze Green
What’s Hot:
- Dual stereo speakers
- Fast charging in around an hour
What’s Not:
- No 5G
- No headphone jack
Bottomline:
The dual stereo speakers make the vivo Y100 stand out against its competition.
Reviewed and Photos by Chris Noel Hidalgo
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE May 2024 Issue