Vivo Y100 review – A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one

Stuff, and the wider residents of South Africa are no strangers to Vivo. The Chinese company has long since used South Africa as a breeding ground for mid-range devices while flinging its more premium devices to other, less South African countries. That’ll be changing as soon as 2025, however, with the incoming release of the X200 Pro.

Until then, we’re stuck with the Vivo’s 2024 efforts, of which we tested the Y100 – a smartphone that turned up a few months back with an impressive R10,000 asking price (and an even more impressive price of R8,500 if you know where to look). But is it worth your budget bucks? If you’ve got the dough to pick up something donning the Samsung or Apple name, probably not. But for someone on a budget? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

A Samsung in Vivo clothing

One aspect Vivo never fails to deliver on is the design, and that’s no different here. There’s a certain amount of guilt for even considering hiding the Y100’s gorgeous colour-changing rear, even if the included cover is transparent. Coupled with the rounded metallic edges, Vivo’s Breeze Texture finish, and a prim-and-proper body – it all makes for one of the more eye-catching mid-rangers out there.

Despite the relatively low asking price, the Y100 looks the part of a flagship phone, most closely resembling Samsung’s latest addition – the S24 FE. It matches the triple-camera kebab setup, slips into a pocket with a 7.8mm thickness, and weighs in at a lightweight 186g. That’ll be all the plastic doing the ironically heavy lifting. It lets down the clumsy smartphone user with a measly IP54 rating that’ll guard against the odd splash.

It can run Clash of Clans

We were genuinely surprised to find a 6.67in AMOLED 120Hz display that provided more than enough illumination with a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. It’s missing some of the premium staples like HDR support, but we’re not complaining. The 120Hz display is a nice touch, though is regularly let down by the poor performance inside. Confine your refresh rate dreams to just the home screen and WhatsApp, though, and it’s smooth sailing.

You can blame Vivo’s choice of chipset for the lack of performance (and reduced price tag). That’s the Snapdragon 685 – an 8-core 6nm processor that’ll get the job done, though only just. Gaming is a non-starter for the Y100 so keep that in mind if you’re reviewing budget options. It can, however, deliver a mostly enjoyable experience for the everyday stuff. We’re talking about checking emails, sending messages, or if you’re feeling fancy, watching some YouTube.

Vivo isn’t breaking the mid-range mould by sticking in a 5,000mAh battery, but it doesn’t have to. Even those smartphones we like to rave about can’t quite manage the feat, and we’re grateful Vivo has, despite the price. We easily managed to eke out a full day’s worth of use, with some left to spare. It does triumph over the rest with a great 80W charger, adapter included, that saw our review model hit 100% in one hour, or just under.

We’ve seen better

There isn’t much to be said about the Y100’s camera setup that can’t be said for hundreds of other smartphones. There’s a 50MP sensor leading the charge, while a 2MP bokeh and what Vivo calls a flicker sensor round out the trio. An admittedly weak front-facing 8MP camera sits atop the device’s display.

They say you get what you pay for, and that’s no clearer than in the case of the Vivo Y100. The 50MP sensor does enough things right to keep you coming back for more. That means decent, well-lit and brightly-coloured shots from the 50MP shooter – especially in the daytime, though low-light conditions weren’t quite the burden we expected to wrangle. Put that down to the flicker sensor, which automatically adjusted the settings – mostly accurately – to best suit the environment. It’s not catering towards more experienced snappers, but the newbie photographers will welcome the automation.

The front-facer is expectedly cruddy, but not to the point that you’d forego selfies entirely. The 8MP sensor lets in just enough light for results to not be exceedingly murky, but we’d advise slapping a filter on if you want decent results for the ‘gram.

Vivo Y100 verdict

If performance is a must in your mid-ranger, you won’t find it here. Vivo’s Y100 does the bare minimum to keep you going throughout the day, with some big sacrifices to performance in order to hit that price. But if you’re on board with all the rest of it – an excellent eye-catching design, decent display, and great battery, you can’t go wrong with the Y100’s impressive R8,500 price tag. You could do worse.