If you only have $299 to spend and are happy to be locked into Telstra, then the Vivo Y55 5G may be the phone for you.
To be clear, the Vivo Y55 5G is a Telstra pre-paid mobile device. It only works with a Telstra SIM card. An unlocking fee applies for use with a non-Telstra SIM card. When you buy online, you must commit to a Telstra plan. Regrettably, Telstra does not show you the available plans upfront (for any pre-paid mobile), so you don’t know what you are committing to. Note this is a single sim version, and it is also currently at Big W for $249 on a Telstra plan.
Apart from that it is a decent phone with a 5000mAh battery and 18W charger, 6.58” FHD+ screen, MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC, 4/128GB/microSD, Wi-Fi 5 AC, BT 5.1, NFC, and 50+2+2MP rear camera.
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed.
There is a five-minute overview first and all test results in a table at the end.
The Vivo Y55 5G is a solid 164 x 75.84 x 8.25mm x 188g phone. The front is an Incell IPS screen (no screen protection rating), the frame is plastic, and the rear is a plastic glass-like, finger-print-resistant finish.
Power and volume controls are on the right. A rectangular camera hump is on the rear. Overall, it is a pleasing effect worthy of a more expensive device.
No specifications are given, and at this price, we don’t test screen brightness, contrast, colour gamut etc. It is unusual to see an FHD+ screen at this price. While it claims HDR10+, HLG, and HDR that simply means it downscales that to the screen’s capability. It has L1 Widevine for HD SRD streaming content.
There is no screen protection rating, so take care and get a screen protector if you can.
The screen has a softer, translucent cool blue tint due to its Incell design. It is focused on battery saving, and you may need to disable auto-brightness and set it to around 80%.
The MediaTek Dimensity 700 is its entry-level 5G chip in a range that includes the 800, 900, 1000, 8000-series and 9000-series. It is why you can have a $299 phone, and there are a few trade-offs.
For example, its modem/antenna is really for city/suburban use where you have good tower coverage. Photo AI post-processing is limited, and we noticed lags between screens when under load. It is not a gamer’s device.
Its closest Qualcomm Snapdragon comparison is the SD480 5G, but its ARM Mail-G57 MAC GPU performs above that.
Despite being a 7nm chip, it throttles by 15% after 15-minutes. That is not bad, but it is not exactly a fast chip in the first place. It starts at 156,114 GIPS, averages 143,937 GIPS and drops to 125,203 GIPS.
4GB LPDDR4X RAM is about the minimum, although it can swap an extra 1GB from storage. 128GB is fine, and there is a dedicated microSD slot to 1TB. CPDT sequential read/write was 491/238Mbps reflecting slower UFS 2.2 flash. Similarly, the SD card achieved 44/24Mbps, which is half the read/write speed we expected. Still, it is not an issue for an entry-level phone. External USB-C is 2.0 and maxes out at 26/16Mbps with OTG enabled.
It should have scored better here as this level of tech is not usual at this price. But Wi-Fi signal strengths were poor, and BT transmission distance is about 10m (should be 30).
Where most phones have a -20-30dBm 5Ghz signal strength at 2m from the test Netgear Nighthawk AX11000 router, this had -47dBm (way too high) and 433Mbps (normal). At 5/10m this had increased to -75/91dBm, both of which are considered unusable. Again, this reflects the MediaTek SoC and antenna system.
You guessed it – the modem and antenna system hold this phone back. It found the nearest Telstra tower at -86dBm and a reasonable 2.5pW. But it could not find the next three towers as most Qualcomm-based phones can. This is strictly for good reception areas in the city and suburbs where there is good tower coverage.
The brightest part of this device is the battery. In our video loop (50% brightness/sound/aeroplane mode) it got 18 hours. PC Mark 3 Modern Office Battery Life was 25 hours and 50 minutes (odd as this is usually lower than the video loop) and Accubattery 18 hours (spot on with the video loop).
The charger 9V/2A/18W charger takes two hours for 0-100% – reasonable.
It has a mono earpiece for calls and a mono down-firing speaker for hands-free. The maximum volume is 84dB. It is not fair to compare mono devices to stereo as the focus must be on clear voice – not music.
It has a 3.5mm 3-pole earphone/mic port. It is fine for hand-free with dual mics offering some noise-cancelling.
Sound-wise it is Mid centric for clear voice. It is missing all the important bass so that this is muddy and missing all the important treble, so there is little character and directionality. In short, it is dull and thin for music
Use BT earphones if you listen to music.
While it lacks toughened front glass, the build quality is very good. It has a plastic frame and back. It has no IP rating.
We expect Android 12, and we got it. The Funtouch OS12 seems a light tough over Android, and it is free of bloatware. It has Vivo alternatives to Google Apps.
We understand (but cannot confirm) that security patches will be released for three years from the handset release.
This is teg typical 50+2+2MP rear camera setup using the Samsung S5KJN1 sensor. It bins to 12.5MP finished image after MediaTek AI post-processing. That is not strong, but it does help low-light shots.
Overall camera summary: Excellent day and office light camera but not strong on zoom, bokeh or low-light.
We know that the price is subsidised by locking you into Telstra (on indeterminate conditions and prices), so this handset is worth more than you are paying up front.
Overall it has everything you need, and we don’t expect more for the price.
The 2022 Motorola g51 5G – well-priced, well-featured 5G (review) is $349 and really the pick of the lower-cost 5G with a Qualcomm SD480+, fast Wi-Fi 5 AC, far stronger phone reception, Qualcomm Bluetooth codec suite and the same rear camera setup as the Vivo Y55 5G.
OPPO has the A54 and A74, but these are 2021 models.
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