Vivo Y95 Review With Pros and Cons

Vivo Y95 is meant to be a bit more affordable and a slicker looking alternative to the Vivo’s V9 Pro. It’s also the first phone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 439 chipset that we have run into. As of today, it will be up against the formidable troika of Zenfone Max Pro m2, Realme 2 Pro, and the Redmi 6 Pro. (Vivo Y95 Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

Does the Y95 qualify as a worthy alternative? We have been putting the phone through its paces to discern just that, and have summed up our opinion in our Vivo Y95 review that follows.

Page Contents:

• Vivo Y95 Review: Price and Specifications
• Vivo Y95 Review: Box Content
• Vivo Y95 Review: Design and Build
• Vivo Y95 Review: Display
• Vivo Y95 Review: Performance and Software
• Vivo Y95 Review: Camera
• Vivo Y95 Review: Battery and Audio
• Vivo Y95 Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons

Vivo Y95 Review: Price and Specifications

Vivo Y95 Box Content

• Handset
• Case cover
• Pre-installed plastic screen protector
• Charging Adaptor and Cable
• Headphones

Vivo Y95 Review: Design and Build

Unlike other V9 series phones from Vivo, the Y95 has a tiny waterdrop notch up front that adds some zing to the look and feel of the handset. The bezels surrounding the screen are mostly slim, save for the chin at the bottom.

Like other affordable Vivo phones we saw this year, the Y95 is a glass-finish phone, that essentially made of plastic. What sets it apart from its other siblings is the gradient pattern on the back. This is again an attempt to include the latest design trend, but the end result on our Nebula Purple variant is a bit too flashy. I am sure there will be people who’ll appreciate the glossy and shimmery back panel, but people with sober taste would be better off with the Starry Black color option.

Ergonomically, the Y95 has curved side edges and is quite comfortable to handle. The rear panel liberally attracts finger smudges but is not slippery. The fingerprint sensor on the rear is readily accessible and the SIM tray has a separate card slot. At the bottom, you will find a regular USB port, mono speaker grill, and the audio jack.

Overall, it’s a well designed and solidly built phone.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) Review – Is it better than OnePlus 6T?

Vivo Y95 Review: Display

The HD+ resolution on the large 6.22-inch IPS LCD panel of Vivo Y95 feels a tad inadequate. The text on the screen isn’t very sharp, but perhaps this isn’t something untrained eyes will immediately notice.

The colors and contrast are just fine, and we could also switch to more agreeable warmer tones from ‘Color temperature adjustment’ option under display settings. The maximum brightness is just average and so is the visibility under the sun. The Vivo Y95 display quality is strictly mediocre.

Vivo Y95 Review: Performance and Software

Since this is the first Snapdragon 439 phone that we have come across, we were quite curious to know how it performs.

Theoretically, the Snapdragon 439  has a bit more raw processing power than Snapdragon 450, but dials back on other SoC components like modem, GPU, etc. It’s the first 12nm process based chipset from Qualcomm (compared to 14nm on SD 450) and has two power Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.9GHz.The other 6 performance cores are clocked at 1.45GHz.

Other than that, there is ample RAM and storage on the phone and a dedicated card slot that can be used to freely add more secondary storage.

The benchmark scores are close to what we get on Snapdragon 450 phones and so is the real world performance. Day-to-day usage is mostly smooth but not blazing fast. App launch time and multitasking are reasonable too. We could play PUBG and Asphalt 9 without much trouble.

Unfortunately, the handset does not support Dual 4G or Dual VoLTE. Call quality and connectivity were mostly fine in our area.

The fingerprint sensor on the phone is fast and so is the face unlock, so unlocking the phone is quite convenient.

The software is the familiar Funtouch OS based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The iOS-like interface is feature-rich, well optimized and mature. How much you love it or detest it will be subjective to your personal taste. The Vivo Y95 doesn’t have DRM L1 certificate which is required to stream HD content on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Also Read: 10 Best Phones With Dual SIM Dual VoLTE Support

Snapdragon 439 Benchmark Scores

• AnTuTu – 61,786
• Geekbench Single core – 862
• Geekbench Multi-core -3042

Vivo Y95 Review: Camera

Testing the Y95 camera, we were instantly reminded of the Vivo V9 Pro. Camera specs are quite customary. There is a 13MP primary sensor with a f/2.2 aperture, paired with a basic 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the Y95 brandishes a 20MP selfie camera. The camera app has numerous features and shooting modes.

The overall camera quality is just about average. In proper outdoor light, the camera can lock focus quickly, set right exposure, and capture ample details more often than not.

The lowlight camera performance isn’t much to write home about, and the portrait mode is mostly a miss.

The selfie camera is a relatively better performer and we managed to capture a few good ones in proper lighting.

Vivo Y95 Review: Battery and Audio

Battery backup is excellent. The 4030mAh battery on the phone can easily last for a moderate to heavy usage day and then some. Vivo bundles a 5V/2A charger in the box that takes around 2 and a half hour to completely charge the battery..

The audio output via headphones and via loudspeaker is above average.

Vivo Y95 Review: Verdict, Pros, and Cons

The Vivo Y95 is basically a trimmed down version of V9 Pro that costs a 1000 bucks lesser. It has a trendy design, long-lasting battery, and a dedicated card slot. The performance can’t match up to best available online alternatives, but should still be good enough for elementary users, even in the long run.

Lack of dual 4G support is a bit disappointing in 2019, but perhaps we can recommend it for basic users who’d prefer to buy from offline stores.