The vivo Y33s is one of the brand’s latest entry-level midrange smartphones to arrive in the Philippines. It packs quite a solid set of features including a Helio G80 chip, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, a 50MP f/1.8 main lens, a 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera, and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W Fast Charging all under the PhP 15,000 mark.
| Chipset | MediaTek Helio G80 |
| Screen | 6.58-inch IPS, 2408 x 1080 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| OS | Android 11, FunTouch OS 11.1 |
| Rear Camera | 50MP f/1.8 Main, 2MP f/2.4 Macro, 2MP f/2.4 Depth |
| Front Camera | 16MP f/2.0 |
| Storage | 128GB, expandable via MicroSD Slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Dual-Band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C |
| Battery | 5,000mAh, 18W Fast Charging |
| Others | Side-Mounted Fingerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Mirror Black, Midday Dream |
The vivo Y33s is encased in the traditional Y-series white box with its branding and name at the front. Inside is the Y33s itself, a silicone case with a USB flap, a white Type-C cable, an 18W wall adapter, a pair of 3.5mm earphones, a SIM eject tool, and documentation.
The Y33s has a flashy design with an incredibly reflective rear finish. It is made out of plastic but there is coating for the rear that resists light fingerprints. Fingerprints will still stick if you hold the smartphone enough and stray hair and dust will also easily appear if the device isn’t cleaned often.
The sides are straight but the edges are chamfered for a smoother feel in the hand. All its buttons are placed at the right-hand side all offer decent tactility and the power button has an integrated fingerprint scanner.
Its triple-cut SIM tray is located at the top. It can house two nano-SIM cards and a MicroSD card at the same time.
At the bottom are its USB Type-C port that supports 18W Fast Charging, a 3.5mm audio jack, and grilles for the microphone and bottom-firing speaker.
The vivo Y33s has a 6.58-inch 2408 x 1080 IPS display at the front with a mini notch at the top for its 16MP f/2.0 front-facing camera. It is missing some of the more attractive features on a display such as 90Hz refresh rate and AMOLED panel but it still performs quite decently for a midrange device.
vivo boasts that the Y33s has 96% NTSC color gamut, which is surprising given its position in the market. It is astounding that vivo made true of the promise of its marketing because testing confirms that the smartphone has a wide color gamut. Colors do tend to lack green but overall, they are pretty even. Contrast ratio and gamma, however, are slightly lower than we want.
The Y33s has a single bottom-firing speaker for its audio system. Performance is okay but unimpressive. Volume is slightly weak even at max volume but it avoids significant distortion and the highs are okay. Bass is lacking, however, and sound stage is tight due to the lack of a proper stereo system.
The Y33s ships out with Android 11 with the vivo’s FunTouch OS 11.1 pre-installed. The brand says that it has lower resource requirements compared to previous iterations and has additional customization options for icons and themes. Most of the standard Android options are present such as Dark Mode, Multi-Window Support, and an easy-to-navigate command center at the top.
The smartphone packs a triple camera setup at the back: a 50MP f/1.8 main lens, a 2MP f/2.4 macro shooter, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor for portraits. Meanwhile, its notch at the front houses a 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera.
Its cameras support HDR, Night Mode, Portrait, Photo, Video, 50MP Mode, Panorama, Time-Lapse, Slow Motion, Live Photo, Documents, and Expert Mode. Not much out of the ordinary here in terms of camera modes.
The 50MP f/1.8 primary lens of the Y33s natively takes 12.5MP photos but upscaled photos can be taken by using 50MP mode. Color rendition is pretty good and photos are sharp when taken in good lighting. Taking snaps in darker scenes will introduce a bit of noise but not too bad for a midrange device.
A 2MP f/2.4 macro lens also resides at the back but performance is as expected: unsatisfactory. Like most macro lens in budget-oriented smartphones it has a low megapixel count that misses details and color are washed out.
At the front is a single 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera. It takes good selfies with okay colors but artificially smooth skin in its default settings. Photos are mostly well-detailed and dynamic range is pretty good. Low-light selfies do come with added noise but not too bad considering the smartphone’s price range.
Inside the Y33’s shiny chassis is a Helio G80 chipset courtesy of MediaTek. It is a fairly vanilla choice for a chipset for a midrange smartphone but it does the job nonetheless. Overall performance is smooth with minimal issues aside from the usual delay when loading big files and resource-intensive apps.
Benchmark figures are pretty decent but not spectacular. AnTuTu Benchmark places the device just under the 240,000 mark while PCMark Work 3.0 scores it at 5,769. GPU performance via 3DMark Sling Shot test scores at 1,492 and 684 in Wild Life.
Gaming performance is also good on the vivo Y33s. Mainstream multiplayer games such as League of Legends: Wild Rift, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Call of Duty: Mobile will run at a fairly steady 60fps. Graphically-intensive games like Genshin Impact will run at playable framerates at its lowest settings but will struggle at higher graphical presets.
Powering the smartphone is a 5,000mAh battery, which is a decent chunk of battery. The device is able to last to the end of the day with medium use which includes work, watching videos, and playing games occasionally.
Running PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Loop test results in a usage of around 20 hours with its brightness and volume turned up to medium. Not too impressive but still offers a rather long smartphone usage.
Charging is done via a USB Type-C port at the bottom that supports 18W Fast Charging. Filling up the device should take around 2 hours when charging from 0 to 100 percent.
Priced at PhP 12,999, the vivo Y33s is a pretty solid handset for the money. It comes with attractive features such as a wide gamut display, a 50MP f/1.8 main lens, a good selfie shooter, and a fairly long battery life.
It is missing some of the more attractive features of other devices such as 90Hz refresh rate and faster charging. We would have also liked if vivo ditched both the 2MP f/2.4 depth and macro secondaries at the back and replaced them with an actually useable ultrawide lens.
Overall though, the vivo Y33s is a good upgrade for those who are coming from an entry-level device.
The vivo Y33s is now available in the Philippines for PhP 12,990. It will be available through vivo Official Stores in Lazada or Shopee as well as vivo kiosks and stores nationwide for PhP 12,999 in Mirror Black and Midday Dream.
