Vivo Y36 Review: A Budget Smartphone with Impressive Performance and Design

The Vivo Y36 has arrived as a budget-friendly option in the highly competitive smartphone market, aiming to deliver solid performance, an attractive design, and decent features without breaking the bank. As the demand for affordable smartphones continues to grow, the Vivo Y36 positions itself as a great option for users who want a balanced device for everyday tasks. In this review, we’ll dive deep into the Vivo Y36’s design, performance, camera system, battery life, and overall user experience, highlighting its strengths and potential drawbacks.

Design and Build Quality

The Vivo Y36 impresses right out of the box with its sleek and modern design. Crafted from polycarbonate material, it offers a lightweight and durable build, making it easy to hold and use for extended periods. The glossy finish on the back adds a touch of elegance, while the gradient color options—such as Mystic Blue and Glowing Black—give the phone a premium feel. Although it’s a budget device, Vivo has managed to give the Y36 a polished and appealing look.

Measuring 7.89mm in thickness and weighing around 190g, the Vivo Y36 is slim and comfortable to carry. The design features rounded edges, ensuring a comfortable grip, and the notch at the top houses the front camera in a way that maximizes screen space, making the phone visually appealing. The dual-camera setup on the rear is housed in a small, vertical module, giving the back panel a clean, organized appearance.

The device is built for durability but does not offer IP rating for water or dust resistance. Despite that, it feels solid enough for daily use, and its aesthetic charm makes it a standout in the budget category.

Display

The Vivo Y36 comes equipped with a 6.64-inch IPS LCD display, featuring a Full HD+ resolution (2388 x 1080 pixels). While it might not boast the deep contrasts of an AMOLED panel, the display performs well for its price range, offering vibrant colors and sharp visuals. The Full HD+ resolution ensures crisp text, detailed images, and an overall pleasant viewing experience, making it suitable for watching videos, browsing social media, and playing games.

One of the standout features of the Vivo Y36’s display is its 120Hz refresh rate. This is a rare feature in budget smartphones, and it greatly enhances the user experience by making scrolling, animations, and transitions smoother. Whether you’re scrolling through apps, browsing websites, or navigating through the interface, the high refresh rate adds a layer of fluidity that makes the phone feel snappier and more premium.

While the display is bright enough for indoor use, it could struggle under direct sunlight, especially in terms of readability. However, the Vivo Y36 is still a great option for users who want a large and smooth screen on a budget.

Performance

The Vivo Y36 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6020 chipset, which offers reliable performance for daily tasks. Paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, this smartphone can handle typical use cases such as browsing the web, watching videos, light gaming, and running productivity apps without significant slowdowns. The MediaTek Dimensity 6020 is an efficient mid-range processor, ensuring that the Vivo Y36 strikes a good balance between power and battery efficiency.

The 8GB of RAM also ensures that users can easily switch between apps and multitask without much lag. Additionally, the 128GB of internal storage provides ample space for apps, photos, videos, and other data. For those who need more storage, the microSD card slot allows users to expand storage up to 1TB, making it an excellent choice for people who prefer to store a lot of content on their device.

The phone runs on Funtouch OS 13, based on Android 13, which offers a clean and user-friendly interface. It comes with features such as Dark Mode, gesture navigation, and app cloning, as well as customization options to enhance the overall experience. While the software isn’t the most refined compared to some competitors, it provides a smooth experience for users who enjoy a bit of flexibility.

Gaming Performance

For casual gaming, the Vivo Y36 handles titles like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and Asphalt 9 quite well, especially at lower graphic settings. The Dimensity 6020 chipset is not designed for heavy gaming, but it offers adequate performance for users who enjoy light to moderate gaming sessions. The 120Hz refresh rate further enhances gaming experiences by ensuring smoother gameplay, although more demanding titles may not run at the highest settings.

Camera System

The Vivo Y36 features a dual-camera setup on the rear, consisting of a 50MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera that’s designed to capture clear, vibrant selfies. Let’s take a closer look at the camera performance.

Rear Camera

The 50MP primary camera delivers solid performance for a budget device. In well-lit conditions, it captures sharp, detailed photos with good color reproduction and decent dynamic range. The AI-enhanced features further optimize photos for better results in various scenarios. The 2MP depth sensor assists with portrait photography, offering a bokeh effect that can help create visually appealing portrait shots. However, the depth sensor doesn’t always deliver perfect edge detection, and the background blur can appear artificial at times.

In low-light conditions, the camera struggles a bit with noise and loss of detail, but it is still serviceable for casual use. Night mode helps to improve low-light shots, but the results are not on par with more expensive devices.

Front Camera

The 16MP front camera offers clear and detailed selfies with accurate skin tones. The AI Beautification mode subtly enhances facial features, allowing users to adjust the level of enhancement. Selfies taken in good lighting look excellent, with vibrant colors and sharp details. However, in low light, the performance declines, with photos appearing grainy and lacking detail. Overall, the Vivo Y36’s front camera is a great option for casual selfies and video calls.

Battery Life and Charging

The Vivo Y36 is equipped with a 5000mAh battery, which is more than sufficient for a full day of moderate usage. Whether you’re browsing the web, watching videos, or using social media, the battery lasts comfortably through the day without issues. For light users, the Vivo Y36 can even last up to two days on a single charge, making it ideal for those who are on the go and don’t want to worry about charging their phone frequently.

The Vivo Y36 supports 44W fast charging, which is impressive for a phone in this price range. It can charge from 0% to 50% in around 30 minutes and reach 100% in about 1 hour. This means that users don’t have to wait long to get their device back to full charge, making it convenient for those with busy lifestyles.

Software and Features

The Vivo Y36 runs on Funtouch OS 13, which is based on Android 13. This interface is highly customizable and offers useful features such as Dark Mode, App Cloner, and AI-enhanced performance. The phone also supports face unlock and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, offering fast and secure ways to unlock the device. The software is relatively clean, but there are some pre-installed apps that users may find unnecessary. However, most of them can be removed if preferred.

The phone also supports dual SIM functionality, which is ideal for users who need to manage both personal and work numbers on the same device.

Conclusion

The Vivo Y36 is a fantastic budget smartphone that offers excellent value for money. With its sleek design, impressive 120Hz display, capable performance, and solid camera setup, it stands out in the competitive budget smartphone market. The 50MP primary camera delivers good results in well-lit conditions, while the 5000mAh battery and 44W fast charging ensure that you can use the device throughout the day without any issues.

While there are a few compromises in terms of camera performance in low light and display brightness under direct sunlight, the Vivo Y36 excels in most other areas. Whether you’re looking for a phone for daily tasks, casual gaming, or social media use, the Vivo Y36 offers a great overall experience at an affordable price. If you’re in the market for a budget smartphone with a modern design, solid performance, and impressive features, the Vivo Y36 is certainly worth considering.