Vivo is a Chinese electronics brand that makes affordable smartphones. With over 400 million users worldwide and sales networks across more than 50 countries, Vivo is no stranger. In fact, Vivo is the sister company of Oppo and I have reviewed the Oppo A51. But today we are looking at the Vivo Y33s, an affordable smartphone that has some decent specs. Let’s find out more about the Vivo Y33s which is the newest member of the Vivo Y series of smartphones.
Design:
The Vivo Y33s follows the design trend of 99% of smartphones made in 2021. There is a large display that takes up the front of the device with thin bezels around it and a notch camera module at the top centre of the display.
There is a triple camera module on the plastic rear.
The sides are made of plastic with curved edges to make the device easy to hold. You will find the volume rocker and a power button, which doubles as a fingerprint sensor on the right side of the device, and then a USB Type-C port, microphone, speaker and an AUX port on the bottom, and the sim/memory card tray with another mic on the top of the device.
The device is also thin, measuring in at just 8mm!
The Vivo Y33s comes in two trendy colours to cater for different tastes. There is the Midday Dream with a unique orange and blue colour gradient, that catches the light on the double textured finish. Then there is the Mirror Black option which has a premium glossy shade of black.
Performance:
The Vivo Y33s is powered by an Octa-core processor with 8GB of RAM. This setup offers quick performance that lets you multitask with no lag. Apps open quickly, interactions with the OS are smooth and the camera snaps photos quickly so you can get the shot before you miss it. The fingerprint sensor is easy to set up and the sensor does a good job at recognising a print.
Display:
The large 1080P IPS LCD display which measures 6.58 inches offers great viewing angles and is great for browsing the web, looking at photos and videos, checking emails or even playing some games. With a resolution of 1080 x 2408 pixels, the display produces, rich, colourful and vibrant images. The display goes bright enough to be visible when outside on a sunny day.
Camera:
Photography enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the Vivo Y33s not only features a triple rear camera, but one of the lenses is a 50MP wide-angle lens! You also get a 2 MP macro and 2 MP depth lens. You get Eye Autofocus and Super HDR. The camera app is easy to navigate, has various modes such as Pano, Live photo, Slo-mo, Time-lapse, pro, documents, filters and more.
In the daytime, you get detailed and bright images that are rich in colour. Overall I think the photos snapped in the daytime are great. You can tap on 2x when in the main photo mode to zoom in and then use your fingers to zoom in up to 10x. As you zoom in, you do start to lose detail quickly, so best not to zoom in too far.
Selfie lovers will enjoy the 16MP front camera which captures HD selfies that are crisp and clear.
At night, Super Night Selfie mode uses noise-cancelling tech and a smart screen flash to light up your face so that you can shoot selfies even when it is dark. When you are not snapping selfies at night, you can snap photos using the rear camera and the Super Night mode, to get vivid night shots. In this mode, you also get 4-night filters to make sure that you get the best night photos. I found the shots I took at night to be clean from noise, but it is vital to keep the phone still when shooting at night.
Portrait mode together with the bokeh feature lets you use the depth lens to blur the background, and the Vivo Y33s does a good job at determining what should be in focus and what should be blurred. You can use portrait mode for the front and rear cameras.
Super Macro mode lets you get up close and personal with subjects. I first tried to take a close up photo with the normal photo mode and it was terrible. When I switched to the Super Macro mode, it was much better as you can see below!
Video can be recorded in 4K @ 30fps. Thanks to EIS Ultra Stable Video, you get smooth video, perfect for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The zoom in the video is not bad, as long as you don’t zoom in too far. You also get slow-motion video @ 30fps, which captures smooth slow-motion video as well as timelapse video. Here is some footage I recorded:
Storage:
With 128 GB of internal storage, you have a decent amount of storage and if you need more, you will be happy to hear that there is support for a MicroSD card, which is something manufactures are starting to leave out.
Software:
The Vivo Y33s runs Android 11 with Vivo’s Funtouch 11.1 Android skin. Android runs smoothly on the device and the Funtouch overlay provides features and customization to the device, which lets you tweak the device to your liking. There is even a Gaming mode to optimize settings whilst gaming.
Battery:
The Li-Po 5000 mAh non-removable battery offers great battery life. You are looking at more than a day or even 2, depending on your usage. The battery saver mode can be used to save battery, by turning on the dark theme and restricting background activity. The phone comes with an 18W charger for fast charging which charges the phone from flat to full in about 2 hours. The Y33s features reverse charging so you can power other devices on the go.
What’s in the box:
In the box, you will find the Vivo Y33s, a see-through case, in-ear earphones, 18W wall charger, USB Type-C cable, a Quick Start Guide, product spec and warranty card.
The included see-through case does a good job at providing protection without taking away from the aesthetics of the device.
Price and Verdict:
The Vivo Y33s sells for R5999 prepaid or R399/R329 on contract. For the price, you are getting a well-made and designed phone, with a great display and battery life and a camera that will be perfect for those holiday photos over the upcoming festive season! The Vivo Y33s is perfect for someone that wants a budget phone with a bit more to it!
