The vivo Y73 looks pretty, but does it offer more than just beauty? We’ve had the vivo Y73 for a few weeks now, and here’s our full review.
vivo Y73 Philippines specs
- 6.44-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2400 x 1080 px
- MediaTek Helio G95 SoC
- 8GB RAM
+3GB Extended RAM - 128GB storage
with dedicated microSD card slot for up to 512GB - Triple-rear cameras with LED Flash:
64MP f/1.79 main
2MP f/2.4 depth
2MP f/2.4 macro - 16MP f/2.0 front camera
- 4G LTE, Dual-SIM, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, BEIDOU, GALILEO, GLONASS, QZSS
- USB Type-C
- Funtouch OS 11.1 (Android 11)
- 4,000mAh battery
33W fast charging - Colors: Diamond Flare, Roman Black
Design: A Dazzling Wonder
The phone itself: stunning. The 6.44-inch display looks great at the front, along with the call speaker and the 16-megapixel selfie camera. We’re surprised this is a notched design, contrary to most phones in its price range that offers cut-out holes for the front cameras. The fingerprint scanner is also at the front part.
The phone is also thin from its sides, making it easy to hold even for longer periods of time. The reflective chrome-plated sides reflect the surfaces it tops on. The bottom part has the 3.5mm audio jack, the microphone, the USB-C port, and the bottom-firing loudspeakers.
The right sides has the volume and power/lock keys, protruding from the side frame.
The left side features the card tray where you can put in two nano-SIM cards and a microSD card slot.
Turn the phone to its back and you’ll see this dazzling back pattern in purple-pink colors, and it’s cool that the refraction takes a different lighted pattern at different angles. The triple rear camera setup, along with the LED flash, is housed on a protruded rounded rectangle area at the top-left, while the vivo logo is below it.
It’s slim and light, making it easy to hold even for longer periods of time. The protruding camera at the back makes it uneven when laid on a table, but is not that of an issue especially if you’re putting a case in. the rounded edges offer a nice grip and do not slide that easily from your hands.
Display: More decent for indoors
Here’s a 6.44-inch Full HD+ display with a U-shaped notch for the selfie camera. It offers vivid colors, great viewing angles, and decent contrast. The sharpness is great as well. The brightness, though, could struggle in environments where too much sunlight is present as it doesn’t stand out that much. The lowest setting is great for bedtime reading, combined with the eye protection feature.
The downward-firing speaker offers mono sound and can fill up a quiet medium-sized room, and offer decent audio for normal music listening. Don’t expect bass-booming tunes though, as this only offers decent mids and lows, and the highest volume setting can break the audio. Better to use your headphones through the 3.5mm audio port or your preferred wireless audio gear via Bluetooth.
Cameras: One you can rely on
The Y73 offers three cameras at the back: a 64MP snapper with two 2MP lenses for depth and macro accompanying it. We’re getting usual modes including a full 64MP photo, macro, portrait, night, panorama, and live photo modes, among others. The 16MP selfie camera, on the other hand, has portrait and night modes. You can change the depth of field manually during portrait, by the way.
Photos produced with the lenses are nearly true to life with good dynamic range, vivid colors, good sharpness and contrast, and intelligent scene detection that enhances the scene. Lowlight scenes can be a bit tricky, but the dual rear flash helps light up those dark areas. Selfies are also great for sharing on social media. Here are some sample shots:
Video recordings can be up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. There are also options to do dual videos in Picture-in-Picture or Dual View modes, and zoom the video while on record. Here’s a sample clip:
OS and Performance: Just the Way You Like it
Here’s vivo’s FunTouch OS with Android 11 on board and like what we said with the vivo V23 a few weeks back, this version of their skinned mobile operating system feels a lot more intuitive and user-friendly especially if you’re coming from other Android-based phone brands.
The phone also offers 8GB of RAM (with 4GB additional VRAM from storage) and 128GB of internal storage. Thankfully there’s a dedicated microSD card slot that allows bigger space for your multimedia content.
Performance is great as we did not encounter any issues using it in our everyday use. Multitasking is also a breeze, and playing games (Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Genshin Impact, and even Asphalt 9) is generally good as we only encounter very minimal frame drops. We are able to score 355,119 with our AnTuTu benchmark test, which is to say that this device can cover most of your daily phone needs. The phone warms from the upper back portion when in constant, prolonged heavy use, but this is the case with other phones as well.
You’re also bound to have face unlock and fingerprint scanning as biometric security measures. The fingerprint scanner is on the display and responds fast enough when unlocking the phone. Same goes with the face unlock, which still recognizes me even if I grew facial hair.
Battery: It’s just as decent
Some people think that a thin phone offers a smaller battery capacity, and you’re right: The Y73 only has a 4000mAh battery capacity, which can last 18 hours on medium to full usage including app browsing, camera and video use, calls and SMS, and even an always-online lifestyle with both WiFi and Mobile Data open depending on scenario. A PCMark benchmark test gave us a 13 hours and 22 minutes score, which is on the decent level given the capacity this has. Recharging the device, on the other hand, takes around an hour with the supplied 33-watt fast charger.
