Vivo’s new Y100 mid-ranger officially lands in South Africa for under R10,000

We’ve never known Vivo South Africa to forego theatrics when dropping a new smartphone. We’d usually encounter some showy event that spared no expense on glitz and glamour for whatever it’s announcing to a cheering crowd. It hasn’t done that this time around. Vivo South Africa has just launched the latest entry of its mid-range Y Series without any preamble. Meet the Vivo Y100.

Unlike the company’s flagship V30 5G which demands attention and R20,000, the Y100 won’t be too harsh on your wallets. It’s looking to oppose the tyranny set out by Apple and Samsung by offering some fairly decent mid-range specs and a price of R10,000 to match  – though we’ve already found a listing going for R8,500 – which only makes the device even more attractive.

Affordable? Yes. Pretty? Also yes.

“Continuing the evolution of the Vivo Y series, we are proud to introduce our latest offering, Y100. It embodies functionality, performance, and reliability, all in one device. This new model is a testament to our unwavering commitment to technological innovation that meets and exceeds the needs of our consumers,” said Tony Shi, GM at Vivo South Africa.

Vivo’s making a big showing of the Y100’s battery life, which arrives with an industry-standard 5,000mAh battery (even for mid-rangers), stands above the crowd thanks to the accompanying 80W charger it reckons can get you to 80% in just 30 minutes. The Snapdragon 685 processor should help extend that battery life even more, in exchange for 4G-only connectivity.

You’ll be able to wrap up your Y100 in two colours: Breeze Green and Crystal Black, the former of which features Vivo’s ‘colour changing design’ meaning it’ll change to a lighter green or even deeper shade when thrust under sunlight or UV light. It’s not the colour that interests us, but rather the display that it’s backing. The Y100 features a 6.67in FHD AMOLED display capable of hitting 120Hz.

Read More: Vivo V30 5G review – Minus 50 aura points

If you were hoping to stand a chance when competing in COD: Mobile or something similar, you can give up on those dreams. The Y100’s Snapdragon 685 chipset will do fine if you confine its output to YouTube and Clash of Clans, but don’t expect it to deliver much more. The included 256GB of storage is a nice surprise, while the 8GB of RAM… not so much.

Minimise expectations from the Y100’s camera efforts. Leading the charge is a 50MP main sensor, while the 2MP snapper above it handles Bokeh shots on the rear. Flip it around, and you’ll find a rather underwhelming 8MP sensor staring at you out of the notch buried in the display. Hey, as long as you’re not worried about when your next Instagram post is going up, it shouldn’t be an issue.