vivo Y31 Review - Android

vivo just recently added a new smartphone called the Y31. As the latest member of vivo’s Y Series, it packs a sizeable screen, a...

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vivo just recently added a new smartphone called the Y31. As the latest member of vivo’s Y Series, it packs a sizeable screen, a Snapdragon 662 chipset, and a gigantic 5,000mAh battery. We took this device for a spin; now, let’s see how it fared.

Design and Construction

The vivo Y31 is a pretty tall device due to its large screen size. Gripping the device, it feels firm and quite hefty, most likely because of the massive battery capacity it holds. Despite that, it sits comfortably against the palm. It features an attractive frosted matte finish on the back, and even though it’s matte, the rear is still prone to smudges and fingerprints, so do use the clear case vivo has provided in the box if you’d like to keep your phone pristine.

Upfront, it has a slightly thick chin, but the other bezels surrounding the screen are slim. There’s a notch at the top of the screen where the front camera resides.

The device has its triple camera setup over the rear, with the LED flash right below the shooters.

We’ll find the volume rockers and power button that also acts as a fingerprint scanner on the right side. Nothing can be found on the left.

While at the top, there’s the secondary microphone, the dual-SIM tray, and a dedicated microSD card slot.

Meanwhile, the bottom is the 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Display and Multimedia

The Y31 sports a 6.58-inch FHD+ LCD screen. The sizeable display makes it great for video-watching, and details come out looking crisp and sharp. We’re also giving a point to the brightness of the Y31’s screen as we were able to use it under direct sunlight, even at just 50%. As for color reproduction, they come out vivid and accurate. In the settings, users have the option to adjust the color temperature of the display.

There’s no Gorilla Glass protection equipped on this, but vivo did install a screen protector over the display. Audio-wise, the single speaker delivers decent and loud audio. However, do expect the lows to be audible only from time to time.

OS, UI, and Apps

For software, the Y31 runs on Android 11 skinned with the newer Funtouch OS 11. The interface has the standard home screen style, but you can change it to a drawer-style one.

Out of the 128GB, about 111GB of it is usable. Pre-installed apps include the usual Google apps and third-party apps such as Facebook and Lazada. The Y31 has a variety of tools pre-installed, including EasyShare, iManager, and V-Appstore.

Camera

Now for cameras, situated on the notch upfront is an 8MP shooter, while for the rear, it consists of a 48MP AI main, 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth. There’s also an LED flash located below the rear cameras.

Daytime shots produced by the rear cameras capture vibrant colors. You can also take advantage of its 48MP sensor, which is pretty nifty in some situations. There’s a dedicated Night Mode here for low light shots and isn’t the best, but still good enough, and details come slightly muddy.