Vivo has launched a new trio of its Y-series smartphones in South Africa, springing the Y29, Y19s Pro, and Y04 (256GB edition) onto the local market for not much money at all. Pricing ranges from R8,000 at the top end to just R3,000 at the bottom.
Finding a smartphone between those two markers isn’t hard in South Africa. Finding something decent, on the other hand, is a tougher ask. Vivo’s pending launch could well be partly behind Samsung’s recent financial demotion of its lower-end Galaxy A lineup, since the Chinese outfit is packing at least a few interesting perks.
Oh, that’s Y, Vivo
The series headliner is the Vivo Y29, an R8,000 handset that brings one bigger feature than almost anything Samsung is packing. That would be a 6,500mAh battery, which makes a standard 5,000mAh seem puny in comparison. A Snapdragon 685, AMOLED display, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage mark this one as different from the internationally-released Y29 while also making it seem like a bargain for the price.
The 6.68in Y19s Pro brings an IP64 rating, a feature shared with the Y04, to the table as part of its R6,000 price tag. The company’s focus here appears to be audio, with dual “300% Audio Booster” speakers forming a large part of the marketing drive. 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage are supported by a less-stellar Unisoc processing unit, but there’s a 50MP main camera sensor to play with.
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The star could well be the bottom-end Vivo Y04, a R3,000 smartphone that somehow ships with 256GB of storage. There are obvious sacrifices to give users the storage allocation — RAM drops to 4GB, Unisoc gets to keep making processors for a while longer, and the 6.74in LCD offers a mere 90Hz. Still, if you’re in the market for the most phone space possible with the lowest amount of money spent, the Vivo Y04 should deliver.
Of the trio, the Y04 is immediately available, with the Y29 and Y19s Pro remain in pre-order status for the present. That should clear up shortly.
