Vivo Y53i

The Vivo Y53i features a 5-inch display with a screen resolution of 540×960 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9. It uses the entry-level quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor clocked at 1.4GHz coupled with 2GB RAM. For enhanced graphical performance, it gets an Adreno 306 GPU. Although the internal storage is 16GB, you can expand it up to 256GB via a microSD card. The battery capacity of the phone is 2,500mAh.

The phone runs on Vivo’s custom UI, FunTouch OS 3.0 based on Android v6.0 (Marshmallow). It comes with dual-SIM support. Cameras on the phone include an 8MP camera on the rear and a 5MP selfie camera at the front. It has sensors like Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, and Compass. It also supports Face Unlock.

There are two colour options for the Vivo Y53i – Crown Gold and Matte Black. In India, it costs around Rs. 7,800.

As we mentioned earlier, the design of the Vivo Y53i is somewhat dated. The back panel has a matte-finish look, whereas the front display has thick bezels on both the top and bottom portions. The size of the phone is perfect for one-hand usage, and the rounded corners offer a better grip.

Overall, the look of the phone is neat and minimalist. The back panel only sports an 8MP camera with an LED flash aligned horizontally on the top left corner. In the middle, you can see the Vivo logo. Coming to the front display, the top bezel houses the 5MP selfie camera, an earpiece, and a Proximity Sensor.

The right side of the frame holds the volume and power keys, and the left side houses the dual-SIM slot and the dedicated memory card slot. While the top portion houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, the bottom part has a micro USB port and a speaker grille.

The phone features a 5-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of  540×960 pixels and a pixel density of 220 PPI. Both the screen resolution and the pixel density seem to be insufficient compared to the screen size. As a result, the colours don’t pop as much, and often the images/texts look pixelated. Also, the thick bezels on the top and bottom further constrain the viewing space. The viewing angles are okay, and as for the sunlight legibility, it’s decent. You can change the colour and contrast quotients from the display settings option.

The Vivo Y53i has a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor paired with an Andreno 306 GPU. However, there’s only 2GB RAM available, which runs out pretty soon. When it comes to day-to-day tasks like calling, texting, social media browsing, etc., the phone can handle it well. You should not face any problem even while navigating between apps. The real issues start when you multitask or play graphics intensive games like Asphalt and Tekken on the phone. Not only does it get heated up, but there’s also a significant lag and sluggishness visible. Honestly, this is not something that you expect after paying around 8k for a phone. Performance wise, the Vivo Y53i disappoints to a great extent.

The Vivo Y53i sports an 8MP camera (f/2.0 aperture) on the rear. An LED flash lies right beside it. The rear camera offers useful features like HDR imaging, Touch to Focus, Auto Focus, Face Detection, Geotagging, to name a few. The rear camera can deliver good results only in favourable lighting conditions. In daylight, the camera can deliver some decent shots with sufficient detail and nearly accurate colour reproduction. However, in low-light settings, camera performance suffers. A lot of noise creeps into images captured in dimly-lit environments and they end up looking grainy.

The 5MP selfie camera also performs like the rear camera; that is, it can produce good results in daylight conditions and fail to deliver in low-light settings. In favourable light settings, however, you can manage to click some good selfies for your social media profiles. Low-light shots look blurry since they lack detail.

The Vivo Y53i comes with a 2500mAh non-removable battery. The battery capacity seems to be less as compared to what’s required for a phone of this size. Whether the battery will last for a full day on a single charge is questionable. Maybe it can pull through a day if the phone is used for routine tasks. For more power and graphics-intensive tasks such as video streaming or gaming, the battery will drain faster.

It has the essential connectivity options including Wi-Fi 802.11, b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2, micro USB port, dual-SIM, FM Radio, GPS with A-GPS and Glonass, and 2G/3G/4G support.

Even for a low-budget, entry-level phone, the Vivo Y53i fails to impress. When compared to other phones in the market, the Vivo Y53i falls behind on many aspects, most notably, the display, the processor, and the battery. In a market dominated by other Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi and Huawei, the Vivo Y53i is bound to face fierce competition.