Vivo Y18 Review: A Budget-Friendly Smartphone with Essential Features

The Vivo Y18 is a budget-friendly smartphone designed to meet the needs of everyday users looking for a simple yet reliable device. With an attractive price point, the Vivo Y18 brings essential features such as a decent display, capable performance, a functional camera setup, and impressive battery life, all packed into a sleek and lightweight body. This smartphone is aimed at users who primarily use their phone for basic tasks like calling, texting, social media browsing, and light gaming. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at the Vivo Y18 to evaluate its design, display, performance, camera quality, battery life, and overall value for money.

Design and Build Quality

The Vivo Y18 boasts a simple and elegant design, typical of Vivo’s budget-friendly Y-series. The device features a polycarbonate plastic back, which gives it a glossy finish that reflects light, providing a premium appearance for an entry-level phone. While plastic builds are common in this price segment, the Vivo Y18 offers a well-crafted design that feels comfortable to hold and use. The back panel, however, tends to attract fingerprints, so a case might be useful for users who want to maintain a clean look.

Weighing just 180 grams and measuring 8.3mm in thickness, the Vivo Y18 feels lightweight and slim, making it easy to handle and fit in your pocket. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power button, offering quick and secure access to your device. Additionally, the Vivo Y18 retains the classic 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a notable feature for users who prefer using wired earphones.

In terms of color options, the Vivo Y18 offers a variety of shades, ensuring there’s a design for everyone. Overall, the phone’s design is sleek, modern, and practical, making it a solid choice for users seeking an affordable yet stylish device.

Display

The Vivo Y18 comes with a 6.51-inch HD+ IPS LCD display, offering a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels. While it doesn’t feature the high-resolution screens found in premium devices, the display is still quite functional for everyday use. The screen delivers vibrant colors and decent brightness, making it suitable for activities like browsing social media, watching videos, or viewing photos.

The HD+ resolution provides clear visuals for general use, though it may not offer the sharpness or level of detail that Full HD screens provide. Nevertheless, the Vivo Y18 offers a comfortable viewing experience for most basic tasks. The waterdrop notch at the top of the display houses the front camera, allowing for more screen space and a modern, immersive design.

For users who spend long hours on their phone, the Vivo Y18 includes an Eye Protection Mode, which helps reduce blue light emission, protecting your eyes from strain during extended use. The display’s size and clarity make it a good option for those looking for an affordable device with a reliable screen for everyday tasks.

Performance

Under the hood, the Vivo Y18 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G35 chipset, which is designed for entry-level smartphones. Paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, the device can handle basic tasks like calling, messaging, social media browsing, and light gaming with ease. The Helio G35 is an efficient chip for budget phones, offering reliable performance for day-to-day usage, but it might struggle with more demanding tasks or multitasking between multiple apps.

The 3GB of RAM provides adequate support for basic app usage, though heavy multitaskers may notice some lag or slowdowns when switching between apps or running multiple applications simultaneously. App load times are reasonable for the most part, but you may experience some delays in more resource-intensive apps.

With 32GB of internal storage, the Vivo Y18 offers sufficient space for most users to store apps, photos, and light media files. For those who need additional space, the device supports expandable storage via a microSD card (up to 1TB), allowing you to increase the storage capacity to suit your needs. The phone also runs on Funtouch OS 11, based on Android 10, which provides a user-friendly interface and useful customization options.

For users who enjoy light gaming, the Vivo Y18 can handle casual games like Candy Crush, Subway Surfers, and Temple Run without issues. However, more demanding games, such as PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty Mobile, may experience frame drops or performance lags.

Camera System

The Vivo Y18 features a 13MP rear camera paired with a 2MP depth sensor, offering a basic yet functional camera setup. The 13MP primary sensor captures decent images in good lighting, with vibrant colors and reasonable detail. Photos taken in well-lit environments look sharp and clear, making the device suitable for casual photography and social media posts.

In low-light conditions, the camera struggles a bit, with some noise and loss of detail. However, the Night Mode feature helps brighten the image in low-light situations, though the results may not be as refined as those from higher-end smartphones. The 2MP depth sensor adds a bokeh effect to portraits, allowing users to take shots with a blurred background, but the quality of this effect can sometimes appear artificial, especially in tricky lighting conditions.

On the front, the Vivo Y18 comes with an 8MP selfie camera, which performs well in good lighting conditions, producing clear and detailed selfies. However, the front camera’s performance drops in low light, with some noise and soft details. The AI Beauty Mode helps smoothen skin tones and remove blemishes, making it a useful feature for those who like enhanced selfies.

While the camera performance of the Vivo Y18 is not groundbreaking, it is more than sufficient for everyday photography needs, such as taking photos for social media or casual shots with friends and family.

Battery Life and Charging

The Vivo Y18 comes equipped with a 5000mAh battery, which is one of its standout features. The large battery ensures that the phone can easily last a full day with moderate usage, including web browsing, social media, and media consumption. Even with heavier use, such as watching videos or playing games, the battery will likely last through the day, making it ideal for users who require long-lasting battery life.

The Vivo Y18 supports 10W charging, which is relatively slow compared to modern devices that offer faster charging speeds. However, considering its budget-friendly price, the charging speed is reasonable, and you can expect to charge the device from 0% to 100% in a little over two hours.

Software and Features

The Vivo Y18 runs on Funtouch OS 11, based on Android 10, providing a smooth and customizable user experience. Funtouch OS offers several useful features, such as gesture navigation, dark mode, and smart management tools to optimize battery life and performance. The operating system also allows for theme customization, enabling users to personalize their experience.

The security options on the Vivo Y18 include the side-mounted fingerprint scanner and face unlock, both of which offer quick and easy access to the device. Additionally, the phone comes with various pre-installed apps and features, including a Game Mode to improve the gaming experience by optimizing resources and blocking interruptions during gameplay.

Conclusion

The Vivo Y18 is a solid budget smartphone that offers great value for money, especially for users looking for a device that can handle basic tasks like messaging, social media, and light gaming. With its large 5000mAh battery, 13MP camera, and sleek design, the Vivo Y18 provides all the essential features that most users need at an affordable price. While its performance and camera capabilities may not compete with high-end smartphones, it excels in areas like battery life and ease of use, making it a reliable choice for those who prioritize these features.

If you’re in the market for a budget smartphone with decent performance, good battery life, and functional camera features, the Vivo Y18 is definitely worth considering. Whether you’re a first-time smartphone user or someone looking for an affordable device for everyday tasks, the Vivo Y18 offers a well-rounded package at an unbeatable price.