Vivo Y70 Review

The Vivo Y70 – £279 via Laptops Direct

Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 5.0 stars2.8 – 2.8 Stars  

The second of three devices we have been sent via Vivo was the Vivo Y70 this device fits in more the budget sector of the market available for £279 via Laptops Direct. 

First impressions the phone looks good it offers a 6,44 inch FHD+ AMOLED display which allows a nice user experience. The headset also offers 33W fast charge as well as a 48MP camera and 16MP night Selfie camera.  Performance-wise its nothing even close to the X51 5G but considering the cost of the Y70 that is not a massive surprise.

Design

Design-wise this handset does not overly stand out and looks very similar to other devices available in this price range. This phone offers a plastic rear and frame and rectangular camera module. This device is very vanilla in terms of what this phone offers in design.

The Y70 comes in two colours Oxygen Blue & Gravity Black. In this review, we were lucky to be sent the blue version. The device is not very heavy at 171g and offers a 3D slim body that measures in at 7.83 mm.  The screen to body ratio is 90.12% which for a budget headset is very good.  

The Y70 has only got a single speaker at the bottom of the phone I feel this is disappointing as the sound was quite poor and very tinny so if you want to listen to some music get a good pair of Bluetooth headphones. The Y70 does come with a 3.5mm headphone jack so if you like that wired connection you’re in luck.  This phone also has a USB-C port which has become more and more popular of late in Android devices. The Y70 did keep hold of the in-display fingerprint sensor which does offer a small amount of luxury and a premium offering. 

 Display

Moving on to the display and as mentioned at the start of this review the Y70 comes with a 6.44 inch FHD+ AMOLED display which offers an excellent experience.

My only small negative is you don’t get a particularly fluid display; the lack of 90Hz refresh does make this phone feel slow. The Y70 offers 60Hz and after you have tested the X51 5G that gives you 120Hz you notice the difference. Would I say this is a game-changer not really it just makes the device feel slow compared to other devices I have tested recently. 

Performance

Inside the device, it’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 which is not a new chipset its been out for some time.  When running performance checks the Geekbench 5 provided a score of 1,309 which scores quite poorly compared to other devices in this price range such as the Realme 7 that scored 1,625. Having said that if you’re only looking for a phone that does the basics it’s a decent option. The Y70 comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage so keeping your phone operating normally in terms of storage for apps and your photos. If you need extra storage you also get a Micro SD slot. 

This phone also uses Android 10 which is partnered by Vivo Funtouch 11 UI which offers an easy to use interface that is fuss-free. You are given apps like the Vivo album, iManager tool but I don’t feel they are very much needed. You have all the normal google apps that allow users to work with this phone normally.  

Camera 

After testing the Vivo X51 5G I was excited to start testing the camera on this phone, hoping the camera on this phone would be just as good as the Vivo X51 5G. However, I was left disappointed. The Vivo Y70 looks great on paper with the camera such as 48MP main camera, 2MP macro & 2MP depth lens. The quality sadly just was not there for this handset. 

I understand that this is a budget handset but the camera for me was a bit of a let-down. I was hoping for more features packed into this device but it was quite basic and the end quality of pictures was very hit and miss. 

Standard photo Mode

The standard photo mode the picture is generally good with some clear image detail and some good end results but lack of zoom only 10x zoom is adequate enough if you’re just looking to point and click and upload a quick snap to social media, but you do lose a lot of true colour if you’re looking to take a snap of a sunset/sunrise or some nice landscape pictures which is a shame as you do lose some of what you’re trying to take. 

The camera does give a sharp image. It’s just a shame that you lose some of the natural colours of the picture and the outdoor world. The zoom is a little shaky even with the steadiest of hands and this does show in the end result with quite of bit of blur and fuzz in the picture 

Night Mode

Most phones now have “night mode” that sharpens up the image quality under low light and gives off great results but alas the night mode on this camera was poor! the end quality of the picture just was not there and really didn’t light up the image subject it left it dark and a poor end result 

48mp picture

Like the Vivo X51 5G, you don’t have the zoom facility when using the 48mp camera function but the picture seems to come out nice and clear with good clarity and colours to the image, this is nice for point and click just let down with no zoom facility.

Super macro

so this handset comes with the super macro feature to allow extreme detail in extreme close-up images where you should get strong and bold results, however, this is really let down on this handset with blurred and out of focus image’s and no clarity or detail in what it should be the image comes out blurry and just no detail or clarity to the image that you are trying to take. 

Bokeh

This worked surprisingly well, with good picture quality and a decent end result for a budget phone, taking a strong subject image and a gentle blur on the background you can do a lot with this function and really produce some good shots that could be of good quality 

Pro Mode 

This camera comes with once again a pro mode that will allow you to fettle with the light aperture, ISO etc so it should work the same as a DSLR camera but again this didn’t really make much of a change to the image that your trying to take you may as well just stick to the point and click of the main camera you get the same results! 

The all-important Selfie camera!! 

We all love a selfie however with this phone the front camera lacks a clean crisp image it falls a little short on picture quality! Whilst it takes a good picture it is just a little bit grainy and a bit blurry for a 16mp front facing camera I would have expected a little bit more! still okay thou to send a quick snap to social media. 

Overall, with this phone, yes, it’s a budget handset but falls short with a budget camera, Vivo could have done a lot more with this to add some punch to the pictures, this camera won’t be up there with the big hitters but fine for a quick point and click. 

Battery life

Battery life the Y70 is average at best as it comes in at 4.100mAh which will last the day as long as you are only doing the basics. It’s a shame as other budget devices we have tested that offered 5,000mAh battery. When using the phone for things like Youtube or Amazon Video you only found a slight drop of about 10% which was quite reasonable. 

The saving grace is the 33W fast charging option which is the same as we got from the X51 5G. This will give you from 0% to 60% in 30minutes which I felt was a very impressive option that will get you away from that low battery warning in no time. If you wanted to give this a full charge I found in about 40 minutes it will bring the phone to 100%. 

Verdict

The Vivo Y70 is a basic phone in the under £300 mark the plastic back and frame makes this just feel cheap. The design of this phone is not much different to any other budget handset but it does come with an AMOLED Display that offers punchy colours but this is then let down by the refresh rate its only 60Hz where they should have increased this to 90Hz for better use. If you are someone who plays lots of mobile games, run away now! This handset is not for you, the performance scores are just not good enough. 

 

The camera is bang average the 48MP does offer clear images with good clarity and the bokeh is surprisingly good. However, the night mode was poor and the super macro function offers blurred images. The Selfie camera is acceptable to keep your social media followers know you are still working from home in this everlasting lockdown. The Y70 also falls down due to the fact you have no ultra-wide lens which is surprising considering other devices in this range such as the realme 7 does offer an ultra-wide option. 

 

If you’re looking for a box standard budget device its an option but if I’m honest if you want a faster refresh rate, more stylish handset and better camera I would buy elsewhere.

Product Rating: 

Design: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0 

Speed: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0

Battery: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0

Camera: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars2.0

Value For Money: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0   

 

The Vivo Y70 – £279 via Laptops Direct

Overall Rating: 2.8 out of 5.0 stars2.8 – 2.8 Stars  

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