Not so long ago, the term “Chinese phone” was only associated with cheap and unreliable phones in India. Only people who could not afford a phone by well known brands would opt to buy a Chinese phone. The only Chinese known brand that was considered good at that time probably was HTC and rest all were considered useless even though they offered all the features that any well known company will do, and at a marginally lower price. Much has changed now. The mobile phones market, specially the Indian market, no longer belongs to only Apple, Samsung or other electronic giants. Several smaller companies are coming up and their products too are equally good. One such fast growing company is Vivo. I recently used Vivo Y51L smartphone for sometime and this is a short review of how I found the product.
Reason why I talked about the Chinese phones above in this article is because Vivo too is a China based company. Founded in 2009, it designs, develops, and manufactures smartphones, smartphone accessories, software, and online services. Capturing a global market share of 2.7%, it quickly became a major player in the smartphone industry and joined the ranks of the top 10 smartphone makers in the first quarter of 2015.
To be quite honest, I did not buy the Vivo Y51L myself. I am, like many other people, a very brand conscious person and would probably never have considered using a Vivo smartphone if it wasn’t for my existing phone dying on me. My sister was using Vivo Y51L and for the time being, until I decided on which phone to buy next, I borrowed her phone. My overall experience, I must admit, was not as disappointing as I expected it to be. This phone, if not excellent, wasn’t bad either. Let us take a look at some of the basic specifications of Vivo Y51L.
- Memory: 16GB internal, expendable up to 128 GB
- OS: Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop) based FunTouch OS 2.5
- CPU: 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
- RAM: 2GB RAM
- Connectivity options: 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1 and GPS
- Battery: 2,350mAh
- 5 inches, 540 x 960 px display
- 8 MP Rear + 5 MP Front Camera
- Dual Sim, 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi
These specifications I believe are pretty standard for a budget smartphone. However, there are several other smartphones with better specs in the same price range.
Design: Without any doubt, it is a good looking sleek smartphone. It has a plastic body, metallic frame and rounded corners. The back cover has a glossy finish that gives the illusion of a glass.
Display: It has a 5 inch qHD display of 600 x 540p resolution at 221ppi which kind of falls short considering the fact that several other phones in the same price range offer an HD and FullHD display. Another drawback is the Back and Task switcher keys. These are not located on the screen but on the main frame of the phone and are not backlit. If you are operating the phone in dark, identifying the location of the keys can be problematic. After a few months of use, even the front touch starts to trouble a bit. You will be on a call holding the phone close to your face when suddenly the touch will come alive and the call will either disconnect or go on mute/hold after either of the button will get pressed by against your cheek.
Performance: The overall performance of the phone was above average I think. Unlike other phones in this price range, there was no heating problem at all even after hours long phone calls or playing games for longer duration. I did not face any lag or delay while switching between apps. The phone never froze and I do not remember that I ever had to kill the battery or restart it. It plays videos of all known formats however there was a definite lag while playing heavy graphic games or watching HD videos which I believe attributes to the low resolution it offers.
Sound: Sound experience too was above average though I feel they should have made the phone’s speaker a bit louder. It is loud and clear enough if you take the call normally but if you put the phone on speaker mode, you would have to still hold it close to your ear in order to understand the other person. Sound quality of earphones was decent enough but they will last only a few months.
Battery: It has a non-removable 2,350mAh battery that can last for an entire day easily with moderate usage with 1-2 hours of phone calls, some casual gaming and internet browsing.
Camera: It has a 8MP rear and a 5MP front camera. The camera app sports features such as HDR and Panorama face Beauty, and watermarking the image. Pictures were quite clear when clicked in broad daylight but lacked a bit in low light conditions.
Final Verdict: Except for the low resolution, I think Vivo Y51L does a decent job at overall user experience. I still however feel that it is priced a bit high as there are several other phones with better and more features in this price range. If your use is only to receive calls, send text, music and occasional net surfing and are looking for a good enough phone within a budget, then by all means go for Vivo Y51L. You can click on the following links to check out this phone on Flipkart and Amazon.
Click here to checkout Vivo Y51L prices on Flipkart
Click here to checkout Vivo Y51L prices on Amazon India.
I hope this information was helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section below and I would be glad to answer.
