vivo Y28 Review

The vivo 17 Y28 is an entry-level offering built to last, carrying one of the largest battery capacities under this segment.

In this review, we took the liberty to unpack what else the phone offers. Can the newly-released Y28 become your next daily driver? Let’s dive right in to see!

Before we begin, take note that our review model came in the Gleaming Orange colorway with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Design and Construction

Kicking things off with its build, the vivo Y28 exudes a pleasantly surprising premium feel. It felt light and was comfortable to hold, weighing 199 grams.

Users will find that the phone has a metallic, glossy frame and back panel. There’s also the vivo branding found on the lower left of the device.

During my time with the device, the back panel didn’t get smudged too often despite the glossy surface. But for those worried about this, the phone does come with a case in its box.

Next, you can find dual-rear cameras situated on the upper left of the back panel. There’s also a LED flash and vivo’s Dynamic Light next to the sensors, but we’ll get to those later.

As for the front, we have the Y28’s display panel and its front camera situated in a hole punch notch. The screen has asymmetrical bezels, which are appreciated.

For buttons and ports, the volume rocker and power button are on the right side of the device. Meanwhile, the left side has the dual nano-SIM tray. Top top side is clean as a whistle.

On the bottom though, we have one of two speakers, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio port. At first, I was trying to find where the other loudspeaker was. Apparently, it’s found on the call earpiece similar to the vivo Y100 24.

Wrapping this segment up, the vivo Y28 has an IP64 rating for dust and splash resistance. This should make the phone dust-proof, but I recommend that users be a bit careful when it comes to water exposure.

General consensus, I’m really happy with how the Y28 was designed. Personally, I’d rather have the Gleaming Orange colorway over the Green variant.

It certainly looks like the phone is out of its price range, sporting a soft hue to boot. Key things to note preference-wise here are the asymmetrical bezels, smudge resistance, and the highly appreciated 3.5mm audio port.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

The vivo Y28 has a 6.68-inch LCD with an HD+ resolution (1608 by 720) and a refresh rate of 90Hz. It has a pixel density of 264 ppi and peaks at 1,000 nits for brightness.

From experience, the pixel density feels a bit lacking. Then again, it is a device under the entry-level segment. The bezels compensate to provide a relatively decent scrolling and watching experience.

Either way, it doesn’t defeat its purpose and does quite well outdoors. However, you do have to max the brightness out if you want to use it under sunlight.

For audio, the device’s dual stereo speakers were quite louder than expected. Users can raise the levels up to 300% if they want to. I also had to flip the phone a certain way since I noticed that my hand covered the speaker at times.

With that, I made the decision to use the Y28’s 3.5mm audio port for my multimedia consumption.

Summing it up, the audio from the speakers were rich and loud. I could binge-watch videos with no issues with my only gripe being the instances where I covered speakers absent-mindedly.

Biometrics provided were that of standard means with the usual pattern, numeric, and the like made available. Notably, the Y28 does have a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Admittedly, it could’ve been polished a bit more. It wasn’t as responsive as I would have liked, so I stuck to the numeric code for unlocking.

Cameras

For optics, the phone is equipped with dual-rear shooters consisting of a 50-megapixel main sensor and a 2-megapixel bokeh camera. It also has a 13-megapixel front camera for selfies and such.

It doesn’t produce the best shots. Indoors, it suffers from saturation with quirks that users have to play around with. At night, grain is pretty evident with the absence of natural lighting.

Selfies with the front camera were decent, but I can’t help but feel iffy towards dollified subjects from shots taken. Clarity with both cameras feel a tad washed out, even if you take well-lit photos.

Again, this phone was made to be a long-lasting, affordable alternative that could handle everyday tasks. While the phone doesn’t score the highest for this segment, it’s decent.

I just find that it takes a bit more work to get the right conditions ready for capturing good photos.

OS, Apps, and UI

Right out of the box, the phone runs on Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14. It’s known for being nice and simple, offering features for personalization and performance.

Aside from themes, you can choose between different graphics and animation for things like charging, display, etc. You can even add up to 8GB of extended virtual memory under settings.

Users can set up vivo’s Dynamic Light feature as an alert for incoming messages, camera shutter countdowns, and playing music. It also offers Multi-Turbo 5.5 technology with Game Mode for better performance and optimized gameplay.

Notoriously, Funtouch OS 14 also has a ton of bloatware. On the bright side, they are separated into folders. You’ll find them under Google’s suite of apps, Hot Games, Hot Apps, and Recommended apps for download.

Pre-installed apps consist of Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok. There’s also Agoda for the presumably small number of people who use it.

The user interface is what you would expect from an Android device. I appreciate how mundane things like a calculator, scanner, and quick sharing options are easily accessible from the drop down menu.

Overall, there’s not much to write home about under this segment. It’s predictable, yet convenient and easy to digest.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the vivo Y28 is a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset with a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU. Our review unit has 8GB RAM with 128GB of internal storage.

The device is passable at handling games. I played Teamfight Tactics first to see how it did with light graphics, and moved on to Asphalt 9 after.

Even with its performance boost via software integrations, frames can drop when playing graphics-intensive games at times. However, it didn’t heat up as much as I expected.

I can infer that it could probably play TFT or games like Mobile Legends optimally. In addition, users could improve this by changing settings to low graphics.

Check out the benchmark scores below:

Results show that the phone is still a competitive choice for modern entry-level smartphones. It provides decent read and write speeds for storage, which is noteworthy for budget-friendly devices.

Battery and Connectivity

The Y28 carries a large 6,000mAh battery with 44W of FlashCharge support.

In PC Mark’s Battery Test, the vivo Y28 lasted for a whopping 22 hours and 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in our video loop test, the phone was able to last 27 hours and 17 minutes playing a full HD movie. These tests were conducted at 50% brightness, muted volume, and in airplane mode.

As for gaming, we found that users can get up to 12 hours and 30 minutes of gameplay with the Y28. This is conducted at 50% brightness and volume over WiFi connection with Game Mode on.

Last but not least, we have the device’s charging speed test. We found that the Y28 has 46% available at 30 minutes and full power after 1 hour and 10 minutes.

TL;DR: the vivo Y28 really excels in the battery segment. It can last long with just about anything you work on it.

Moving on to connectivity, the phone features Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and 5G from its dual nano-SIM card. The phone’s call quality is standard with either a signal or over WiFi.

Pricing and Conclusion

The vivo Y28 has a suggested retail price of PHP 7,999USD 136INR 11,555EUR 130CNY 993 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. It’s also available for PHP 9,999USD 170INR 14,445EUR 162CNY 1,241 with a higher 256GB storage option.

This phone is an affordable pickup for 2024 that stands out as a slim battery heavyweight. I encourage readers to consider this if they’re looking for a well-rounded device under the entry-level segment.

Here are the links to the vivo Y28 in Shopee 31 and Lazada 21.

My personal gripes with its cameras, biometrics, and bloatware are offset by its good design, decent performance, and insane battery life.

In other words, the pros outweigh the cons. If we’re here to weigh down what really matters when it comes to functional devices, the Y28 wins out.

So, would you get this phone? Let us know what you think of the vivo Y28 in the comment section below.

What we liked:
* Premium-feeling design
* Insane battery
* Decent performance
* Price

What we didn’t like:
* Biometrics
* Bloatware
* Cameras

vivo Y28 specs:
6.68-inch HD+ (1608 x 720) LCD, 264ppi
90Hz refresh rate, 1,000 nits (peak brightness)
MediaTek Helio G85
2x Cortex-A75 @ 2GHz, 6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
Mali-G52 MP2 GPU
8GB RAM
128GB, 256GB internal storage
microSD card support (hybrid slot)
50MP (f/1.8) main camera
2MP (f/2.4) bokeh camera
8MP (f/2.05) front camera
3.5mm audio port
Dual stereo speakers
Dual nano-SIM
5G
WiFi 5
Bluetooth 5
USB Type-C
Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
6,000mAh battery, 44W FlashCharge support (wired, in-box charger)
IP64 rating for dust and water resistance
165.70 × 76.00 × 7.99mm (dimensions)
199 grams (weight)
Agate Green, Gleaming Orange (colors)