Is this the part where vivo created an actual solid device with decent specs and quality-of-life features? TLDR: Yes.
The popular smartphone brand vivo has finally released the vivo Y27, a mid-ranger with some flair for style in exchange for “acceptable” specs. Can this phone be the one true banger vivo fans in the entry level/mid-range category are hoping for?
Before we push through the review itself, let’s get down to its basic specs:
Now that we are done with the specs section, let’s unbox the vivo Y27.
Unboxing
The overall box design for the vivo Y27 is a standard affair, if you ask us. White background highlights the silver text really well– clean and uniformed, like most vivo releases.
Opening the box reveals the phone itself cocooned inside a plastic wrapper. There’s a thin plastic tray that separates the accessories from the device. There’s a regular jelly case to keep your phone from nicks and scratches, some paperwork to read and save for later (warranty). The sim ejector pin is placed in the middle, with the Type-A to Type-C cable on the left, and a fast 44W charging brick on the right. Say what you want about vivo’s choices on their entry-level/mid-range level, but they make sure fast charging is included in most offerings.
Back design
With that on the way, let’s talk about the phone itself. Freeing the vivo Y27 from its plastic shell reveals a really attractive matte back that you will be proud to show off and carry in both formal and informal settings. vivo really ups their design game whether it’s a budget phone or the top-of-the-line.
We have the Burgundy Black colorway and it really is a deep burgundy black. It’s like a dark, burnt wine color and we love it for that, plus points for style. We will not be surprised if someone working on the corporate or executive level will sport this phone for everyday use or for office purposes. There’s also a Sea Blue variant if that’s your jam.
The matte back has a solid texture to it, and your so-called hand juice (or sweat) will not leave marks here. There’s also extra grip provided so you can go caseless if you’re the type that lives life on the edge. But for us, the jelly case is a necessity.
Both camera bumps are large and highlights its larger-than-life character and fun vibes. The words “Aspheric Lens High Performance” adds a nice touch of sealing the deal. To top it all up, the gold accents encircling each bump solidifies its stylish look.
The flash sits flush and it doesn’t have bumps on its own. Below, the headphone jack, loudspeaker, microphone, and the Type-C port can be found.
On the right side, the volume rockers and power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner populates the area. There’s nothing on the left side. The top is where the sim slot can be found, where you can insert two SIM cards. No microSD slot though which is bizarre considering it’s an upper-entry level/mid-range device, and such features are widely found around that class bracket.
Talking about the build quality, the plastic back/frame design is robust and won’t break anytime soon. There’s no official IP rating here so keep that in mind if you want your phone capable of surviving harsh environments like humidity and dust.
Display
The vivo Y27 has a 1080p IPS LCD display with 60Hz refresh rate (sadly). The bezels around the display are what you expect from a device with this price point. The selfie camera forms a water drop notch which is not our favorite, but still understandable. Remember, you sorta get what you paid for.
There’s a pre-applied screen protector if that counts as a plus. For us, it is. Viewing angles are alright and color reproduction can be improved as well. Compared to other vivo offerings under this price bracket, it is one of the better choices.
According to GSMArena, the max brightness tops at 600 nits which is bright enough to use outdoors if that’s accurate. We used the vivo Y27 outdoors and it is nice for the most part, until there’s direct sunlight involved. For most cases, using the phone outside is decent.
Watching YouTube videos at the highest settings tops at about 2160p@60fps in this device is possible, but choppy. Dropping it to 1080p however, restores its watchability. There’s no HDR support here, something that is expected for a device of this caliber.
Colors are somehow dull and inconsistent, but only by a margin. On the brighter side, Widevine L1 is present here, giving it an advantage in watching Netflix and other streamable content.
Scrolling through the menu and apps feels a little clunky at times because of the lack of higher refresh rate option, but it isn’t the end of world if you use a device with only 60Hz.
Battery life, charging, and audio quality
With a 5,000mAh battery, the vivo Y27 is sure to last most of the day. According to our regular usage data, after using it for 8 hours, we barely have 7% of battery life due to our intense gaming, photography session, Facebook, YouTube and benchmarking. Charging it back to full health is much easier with a 44W wired charging speed. We can’t say the exact numbers, but charging it from 7% to 40% using the provided cord and brick took us 32 minutes.
Audio quality is average on the vivo Y27 due to its single-firing loudspeaker. No bass to write home about. Plugging a set of earphones on the 3.5mm headphone jack is quite alright. The bass, mids, and highs all perform reasonably. For those who will use it as a music player, the vivo Y27 will provide you a nice experience.
Android 13 with vivo’s Funtouch OS 13
Funtouch OS 13 continues to be refined here in the vivo Y27. The typical vivo goodies are here: Ultra Game Mode. Jovi Home, and Memory Expansion (vivo Y27’s 6GB of RAM can be expanded to an additional 6GB for a total of 12GB). Bloatwares are here to stay, even asking you to install “essential” apps during start-up. Ads can flash after cleaning the device using the built-in cleaner, and it’s all kind of expected from the company.
Benchmark and gaming performance
vivo Y27 uses a 12 nanometer Helio G85 chipset with up to 2.0GHz max speed from three years ago. It’s not the best by a stretch, but not the slowest by far. It scored 258,731 points on AnTuTu Benchmark 10.0.7, but it uses only the 3D Lite version since it can’t handle the newer full benchmark testing. Ten point multi-touch is detected here as well.
Let’s see how the vivo Y27 fares in running popular games such Call of Duty: Mobile, Genshin Impact, and the all-time favorite, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE (MEDIUM GRAPHICS/HIGH FRAME RATE) – Playing is mostly fine in multiplayer, with occasional hiccups and stutters during the most intense parts of the game. Playing Battle Royale took a lot of toll on the vivo Y27, it suffered heating issues and frame drops. CoDM can play here for most times, however, if there’s too many moving elements around, this has become quite a problem for the phone.
MOBILE LEGENDS: BANG BANG (HIGH GRAPHICS/HIGH FRAME RATE) – Ultra Graphics is locked by default so we have to play to its strengths. As Mobile Legends is a lighter game than CoDM, we managed to play several games with vivo Y27 with only minor frame drops encountered. The Helio G85 processor is clearly optimized well, and we expect future updates especially with the unlocking of the ultra graphics option.
GENSHIN IMPACT (MEDIUM SETTINGS) – It seems like even for medium settings, Genshin Impact is barely playable on the vivo Y27. You can lower all settings to lighten up the chipset’s load, but that defeats the purpose of playing such an AAA game.
Photo and video quality
We know how gorgeous the rear camera modules are, but can they take gorgeous pictures? The vivo Y27 has a main 50MP camera with f/1.8 aperture. There’s also a 2 MP depth sensor. The selfie shooter on the other hand, is an 8MP one with f/2.0 aperture.
There’s no ultrawide here to be found, so the main rear sensors carry all the load. Photos are decent with appropriate lighting. The colors are brighter than real life and some people want that kind of stuff instead of accuracy, because that’s a photography enthusiast’s request rather than your usual everyday human who just wants to point-and-shoot with confidence. No electronic or optical stabilization here so keep that in mind.
The flash really helps with shots in dim areas or at night, since the vivo Y27’s rear cam preserves most details with ease. Of course, the post-process sharpening is also the Y27’s Achilles heel. Some night shots look smoky or washed out in terms of color reproduction.
The selfie camera is alright, but not the best, contrary to vivo’s dedication to selfie cam quality. In ideal conditions, it produced vibrant photos with clear detail and contrast that’s tastefully done. Beautification effect is on here by default unless you want to leave it on to improve your facial complexion digitally.
Selfies at night or low-light areas over sharpen and blur it at the same time for some reasons. The front cam clearly sacrificed quality for brightness here, and we don’t blame them for doing that.
Video quality tops in at 1080p@30fps for both rear and front cameras. Daytime video quality is beautiful, crisp, and punchy. Night time however is a different story, we will just summarize it in one word: MID.
What we like about the vivo Y27
- 44W fast charger inside
- Beautiful, timeless design
- Widevine L1 support
- Good daytime photo/video quality
What we dislike about the vivo Y27
- Helio G85 is alright, but at least a Helio G90T and above is preferable
- Night photos/video quality suffers quite a lot
- No IP rating, at least even an IP52/53 is present here
- Bloatwares
Overall, the vivo Y27 is a phone you would buy for its looks and not for its pure raw performance, and most people are alright with that. It works well, and performs well, if you know its limitations, then it is a welcome go for us.
