Vivo Y15 Review

The economic phone market is currently the most happening segment in the smartphone market. While it is brands such as Xiaomi which have excelled in the range, every company has been trying to create the best low-range smartphone, the newest one to hit the stands being the Lenovo A6000. Vivo too is just another smartphone company like Gionee, ZTE and Huawei. The phone that has given Vivo the recognition is the Vivo X5 Max, but the company just like others, has its facts right and therefore, has come out with an economic smartphone in the form of Y15.

The Vivo Y15 is an old soul. It was released back in 2013 and still possesses stuff such as Android 4.2.

The Vivo Y15 comes with an MRP of Rs. 8,990 and retails around 7.5K. Looking at the specs and the competition, this phone needs to strive hard to prove itself. Does it, let’s find out.

Vivo Y15 specs

• 4.5-inch 480p display
• Android 4.2.2
• MediaTek MT6582 chipset
• 512 MB RAM; 4 GB onboard memory
• 5-megapixel rear cam; 2 -megapixel front
• 1900 mAh battery

Hardware

The Vivo Y15 come with some specs, which could be called below average at the start. The Vivo Y15 somehow reminded me of the Sony Walkman series because of its shape. It is neither too thin nor does it weigh too less. The device is plastic all around, but to its credit, the plastic is smooth and you would like to run your fingers over and over it again. The Vivo 15 does look good though.

The device’s 480p display is sorrounded by thin bezels. The price matches phones such as the Yu Yureka in price war, yet doesn’t have backlit capacitive buttons which is sad.

The 3.5mm audio jack is located at the top, while the MicroUSB slot is located at the bottom. While the left side has been left clean, the volume rocker and power button are located on the right side of the handset.

At the back of the handset, there is the speaker grille at the bottom and camera with LED Flash at the top.

As far as the internals are concerned, this phone doesn’t impress there either. It comes with a paltry 512  MB RAM and a MediaTek 6582 chipset. The internal memory comes at 4 GB, while the device comes with 128 GB MicroSD support. The device supports dual-SIMs along with a MicroSD card slot above its 1900 mAh battery.

Display

The 4.5-inch 480p display is not too great. It is a little dim to say the least. The sunlight visibility is low and the display gets scratched easily. The 218ppi display doesn’t match with displays even on lower priced phones such as the Lenovo A6000.

The only good point about the display is that it has a good color scheme that doesn’t put too much pressure on your eyes.

Software

Vivo comes with a UI called the FunTouch OS. It runs on old version of Android Jelly Bean – Android 4.2.2. There is no update on the Android update of this device. The UI is light and thankfully doesn’t put too much pressure on the device.

The FunTouch OS works smoothly, and offer some very cool things. You can slide up from the bottom to reveal recently opened apps. While the settings opens up the smart gestures section which comes with gestures such as smart unlock, smart mute and smart remind. Basically, these are mostly swipe based gestures that open up the camera and other stuff.

The device comes with third-party apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat pre-installed. The device also packs in backup for your messages, contacts and bookmarks in the form of VivoCloud.

As far as the software is concerned, it did not give us anything to worry about, except the fact that it is dated.

Camera

The camera on Vivo Y15 is the one thing that I really liked. The 5-megapixel rear cam performs well. The color temperature is good for the images.

The device actually performs better than many phones that have a similar price tag, when it comes to the camera. Vivo has definitely done well when it comes to device cameras. There is no shake sensitivity on the device. You can actually add watermark on the images on the device itself, which is one thing that I find great.

The low-light performance is not too good, but that is the case for all phones this price range. The front cam has a wide lens which makes it easy to take selfies. The camera might be the only thing that makes this device work well.

Performance and Battery

The device cannot be expected to perform too well. In fact, benchmarks apps refused to run on it, due to the lack of internal memory. The device lagged many a times and if you put too much pressure on it, sometimes it gets stuck. The display doesn’t make it a phone you would like to run videos on. The sound quality is okay.

As far as the connectivity is concerned, we did have a few call drops here and there, so the feedback is not too great on that either.

Verdict

The Vivo Y15, without a doubt, has come too late to the Indian market. The device had debuted in 2013, and would have been a great device back then. Even now, some things on the device work pretty well. The best part of this phone is the camera, which Vivo has made a habit of excelling at.

As far as the hardware is concerned, the device definitely fails to impress. 512 MB RAM is too less for the daily grind. The device could have done so much better with 1 GB RAM and a better display.

As far as the competition is concerned, devices such as Moto E, the Lenovo A6000 and Xiaomi Redmi 1S easily outdo the device in many respects. The device doesn’t have price worthiness as devices such as the Micromax Yu Yureka lay in the waiting.

The Vivo Y15 comes with some average specs, but nothing more to push it further. An average consumer might not even look at what the phone offers, keeping in mind the specs, the name and competition.