Vivo Y70 Review - Not a BEST BUY but poco we miss…
We finally tried the in vivo Y70 and even if probably to the many readers who follow us, the name of the company live a lot, indeed given the value that this word assumes in our language could give rise to jokes or puns, but vivo is a solid and well-established company in China, a leader in the reference sector of mobile telephony and beyond. On these pages we have already talked about vivo not only with news but also with two reviews, concerning the live TWS Neo, a pair of true wireless earphones as well as the X51 5G smartphone, which I would dare to call a top of the range for the goodness of the product.
In fact, the company has recently arrived on the Italian market, temporarily proposing a line up of products in which, in addition to what has already been mentioned, we also find the medium range vivo Y70, which, net of specifications and quality / price ratio offered, promises to give a hard time to the many devices that populate the mid-range. So let's find out in detail in our complete review.
One thing I love about this company is that it does not leave out any detail, not only in the construction of its terminals but also in the equipment that accompanies the sales package. In fact, the box in which the smartphone is contained is well maintained as well as offering the following elements:
- live Y70;
- USB Type-C cable;
- semi in-ear wired earphones
- wall power supply, with European socket and max output 11V-3A / 33W;
- pin for the SIM slot;
- quick guide and warranty certificate (Italian language present);
- pre-applied plastic film on the display;
- soft transparent TPU cover.
SAR values: 0,995 W / kg (head), 1,197 W / kg (body)
Unfortunately, no indication is given on the materials used in the construction of this vivo Y70, but looking at the finishes on the rear, the body seems to be made of glass with opaque shades that therefore are not affected by fingerprints and dirt in general, without sacrificing effects. really special light. Here on the back the only element to break the design is the photographic module, a rectangle positioned in the upper left part that houses 3 cameras and a Dual LED flash and protrudes less than a millimeter from the profile of the device. I am quite sure instead that the frame is made of plastic, where we find at the top the second microphone for noise reduction and the SIM tray that can accommodate two SIM cards in nano format as well as a micro SD to expand the integrated memory, with support up to 512 GB, without having to give up the functionality of the Dual SIM Dual Standby.
The left profile is smooth while specularly we have the classic power buttons and volume rocker, well assembled and free of unwanted movements, while in the lower side of the vivo Y70 there is the 3,5 mm jack for earphones, main microphone, input Type-C with OTG support (no video output) and the mono-type system speaker.
Vivo Y70 was pleasant to handle even with a single hand, resulting rather ergonomic and balanced in weight, however limited to only 171 grams. Extremely easy to handle net of dimensions equal to 161 x 74,08 x 7,83 mm thick, this is a remarkably contained value and which contributes, together with the slightly curved profiles and the rear not slippery at all, to use the smartphone for a long time without strain your hand.
I mentioned earlier the mono-type speaker, which on the whole offers a good level of volume without distorting, but above all the sound that comes from it is well balanced, although something better could be done with the low tones, but poco bad because through wired earphones you can benefit from better quality, possibly balancing the audio content based on preset profiles about the user's age. Good yield, then, from the ear capsule, being able to always converse in a crystalline way.
You may have noticed that I did not mention the fingerprint sensor, this is because it was positioned below the surface of the display, as the vivo Y70 enjoys the AMOLED technology for this panel which is configured in a 6,44-inch unit with Full resolution HD + (2400 x 1080 pixels) with a screen-to-body-ratio of 90,12%. The glance is definitely positive, as the frames that surround the vivo Y70 screen are not marked at all, even in the presence of a drop notch that integrates the selfie camera, where positioned above, we also find the capsule earpiece and proximity and ambient light sensors, which work perfectly.
It goes without saying that we are in the presence of a beautiful screen, which returns deep blacks and good color fidelity in the reproduction of video content. In fact, I did not notice any distortion at certain angles of the screen and overall you can immediately appreciate the goodness of the panel without having to act on any setting, even via software you can intervene on the color temperature, as well as enjoy the functions of reading, night and dark theme. The touch screen is responsive and precise, much more than other smartphones tested recently and also the brightness range is quite wide, allowing excellent readability even in direct sunlight.
In any case, know that vivo Y70 enjoys the Widevine L1 DRM certification, even with Amazon Prime Video, which is generally lacking in many top-of-the-range devices from other brands, while the only aspect that should be improved is the Always function. On Display, as this does not allow the viewing of all notifications from the app and is also not interactive. Nothing that cannot be solved with a firmware update, thus definitively filling the absence of a notification LED.
Finally, the company at the software level allows a great variety of customization at the graphic level, starting from the smartphone unlocking animations but also for those of the fingerprint and relative unlocking, face recognition, charging animation and even animation for the '' inserting the Type-C cable. However, you also have the option of assigning lighting effects when you receive calls or notifications. Finally, the display can also be activated with a double tap from off or by lifting the smartphone.
Returning therefore to the unlocking system, vivo Y70 uses both the fingerprint sensor integrated under the display and the selfie camera for face recognition. In both cases I found reliability and speed, even in total darkness. If I really have to expose myself, I can say that both release systems were among the best I have tried to date.
In terms of connectivity, nothing is missing, or almost nothing, as the only absent in the equipment of vivo Y70 is the FM radio, while the dual band WiFi module was of excellent level, which managed to hook the signal even in the less covered in the house. Then there is Bluetooth 5.0, OTG support through the Type-C input, GPS with also coupling of Galileo satellites and finally the NFC for mobile payments and full support for Google Pay.
But what convinced me most of all is the LTE connectivity which in my case made it possible to navigate more than quickly by always aggregating the 4G + signal. It may be discounted to say it, but of course we have support for the 20 band and therefore no problem in using any national telephone operator.
All good true, yet some of you might turn up your nose for the hardware equipment that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, octacore solution with maximum clock at 2.2 GHz which is flanked by the Adreno 610 GPU. It is true, we are faced to a processor that already has a year on its shoulders but allows you to perform every task without any problem.
Certainly a little help is given by the presence of 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 GB of internal storage of UFS 2.1 type (I remember being expandable via micro SD), but objectively I could not have asked for better. Personally, the last smartphone I tested was a Xiaomi Mi 10T, which boasts a Snapdragon 865 CPU, yet I have not felt at all the weight of the age of what is used on vivo Y70, being able to carry out all daily operations without any minimum hesitation, indeed I was also able to benefit from an excellent gaming experience with titles such as Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9, which certainly are not exactly light in execution, all without slowing down and / or overheating.
Many users will appreciate the fact that vivo Y70 offers a customized version of Android 10, or the FunTouch OS 11, which on the whole is very close to the stock experience of the green robot, without however renouncing the graphic customizations I have already mentioned but also to useful functions such as the Ultra-game mode, but also to enjoy the Record Screen function, enable the smart click (for example to activate the flashlight from the screen off), clone apps and take advantage of the app responsible for managing the phone, called iManager, through which with a simple click we can clear the cache, check for viruses on the phone, manage apps and much more. If you are wondering, the answer is NO, we cannot record calls as both the phone dialer and the Messages app are the native ones of Google, as well as many other basic apps. Moreover, the company has already released firmware updates, a clear sign that their devices will not be abandoned to themselves.
Excellent performance that also pours out on the autonomy side, which thanks to a 4100 mAh battery, allows you to get from 6 to 6 and a half hours of screen on, thus being able to even reach 2 days of use. Overall you will always bring home a busy working day and in the worst case scenario, you can still count on the support for 33 W fast charging, through which you can go from 0% to 60% in just 30 minutes, while for a full charge it takes approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.
One of the aspects that is most at heart in the purchase of a new smartphone is that relating to photographic performance. Well, even in this context, the vivo Y70 does not look bad. On the rear we find a 3-lens configuration, whose main sensor is 48 MP, f / 1.8 with autofocus which is flanked by two other 2 MP, f / 2.4 lenses, dedicated to macro photographs and the bokeh effect. Here this is the only negative note I make to this smartphone, as I would have preferred the adoption of an ultra wide camera rather than macro, as I can replicate the same effect with some tricks using the Pro mode. The software is quite complete , offering filters and light effects for òa portrait mode, but there is no lack of functions such as Time Lapse, Slow Motion, Panorama, Live Photo and for the youngest or more social, even the AR Stickers mode, with which to take pictures or videos enriched with nice graphic animations.
In any case, the photos taken during the day are very good, rich in details and balanced from the chromatic point of view, but now even the most poor smartphones take good photos during the day and it is therefore at night that the vivo Y70 emerges from the mass, also offering in this case, well-defined shots with good management in the calibration of the scene lighting. This happens thanks to the night mode, which is also available for the selfie camera, a 16 MP unit with opening f / 2.0, which also supports automatic HDR.
As for the videos, we have the possibility to take advantage of a maximum resolution of 4K 30 fps on the rear while on the front there is 1080p 30 fps. It is not clear if there is some sort of EIS digital stabilization, but overall even the videos enjoy the goodness of what has been said in terms of photographic yield, without suffering from big jolts of the captured image, being able to also benefit from an excellent audio capture. by the microphones.
Conclusions
vivo Y70 I could almost define it free of defects, if not the fact that at the moment the company has entrusted the exclusivity of its products to the Euronics distribution chain. The list price is 239 euros, a more than honest and focused value for the goodness of this smartphone, which makes even more sense if it drops to about 219 euros, through an eBay seller. Objectively there is not a point analyzed in the review that did not satisfy me and personally I think I live as a company will employ poco time to reach the heart of Italian users, hoping to do so as soon as possible through online distribution channels such as Amazon.
