The vivo Y29 is vivo’s latest budget smartphone in the Philippines. It features a massive 6,500mAh battery, IP64 water resistance, and up to 400% loudspeaker volume.
I used the device for several weeks testing its performance, cameras, battery life, connectivity, and overall user experience. Here’s my full review.
Design & Durability
The vivo Y29 has an attractive design. I have the Marble White variant which features a glossy back with a marble-like texture. It’s also available in a more subtle Espresso Brown color.
On first glance, it looks like a typical smartphone but inside is a massive 6,500mAh battery. It’s a bit hefty at 208 grams but the build quality feels sturdy.
At the back, you’ll find vivo’s signature circular LED called Dynamic Light. It serves as a notification indicator and syncs with music from apps like Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok for added style.
The vivo Y29 also has durability features including a scratch-resistant cover glass, SGS 5-star drop resistance and IP64 water resistance. It’s designed to survive accidental drops, water splashes and light rain.
It’s great to see these durability features in an affordable smartphone.
Display and Audio
The vivo Y29 has a large 6.68-inch display with smooth visuals thanks to its 120Hz screen refresh rate. It can also get very bright with up to 1000 nits of maximum brightness making texts legible outdoors.
However, it only has HD+ resolution which means some pixelation can be noticeable when viewed closely. It also has a thicker chin bezel compared to the normal-sized side bezels.
For audio, the device has stereo loudspeakers that can reach up to 400% volume. It’s loud but the sound quality isn’t good, especially at high volume levels.
Performance and Storage
Playing PUBG Mobile on the vivo Y29 smartphone.
The vivo Y29 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 processor with 8GB of physical RAM and up to 8GB of extended RAM. This is a dated processor but it still has the power to open apps quickly, make scrolling across social media apps smooth, and provide a snappy overall experience.
However, there are occasional lags when quickly switching from a game to other apps. Its gaming capability is also limited to casual titles or lower graphics settings.
Playing Mobile Legends on the vivo Y29.
Mobile Legends supports up to Ultra graphics quality but keeping it one step down at High graphics quality makes the game smoother. It achieved an average framerate of 59.93 fps in my tests. It also achieved 39.90 fps on Call of Duty Mobile and 39.75 fps on PUBG.
Here’s a more detailed exploration of the vivo Y29’s gaming capabilities.
In terms of storage, the device comes in two variants – 128GB and 256GB. Both are plenty for files but large games might be challenging for the 128GB variant. Thankfully, there’s a microSD card slot for additional storage.
Camera Quality
The vivo Y29 has a 50 Megapixel main camera at the back. It’s accompanied by a 2MP depth sensor but its function is more decorative than functional.
Pictures captured by the main camera in well-lit situations look good with sharp details and HDR to balance brightness. There are also several shooting modes such as Portrait mode, Time-lapse, and Pro mode with RAW support.
Here are several sample pictures:
However, low-light shots are grainy and not as sharp as daytime shots. There’s a dedicated Night mode to improve the quality of night-time shots but requires several seconds of processing and the results aren’t great.
Meanwhile, the 8MP front camera can produce good-looking selfies. It has aggressive beautification by default so you might want to turn this feature off for a more natural look.
Both front and rear cameras can record up to 1080p videos with almost the same story: decent video quality during the day and grainy at night.
Software and Apps
The vivo Y29 runs on the Android 15 operating system with the Funtouch OS 15 software. It has a clean and neat user interface.
It comes pre-installed with Google apps, vivo apps, and other third-party apps. These include Facebook, Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, Netflix, Agoda, Linkedin, and more.
The device also supports Artificial Intelligence features including Circle to Search with Google and Sleep Standby Optimization.
Connectivity and Security
The vivo Y29 is a dual SIM smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity. It can provide good mobile internet speeds but it would have been better if it had the faster 5G connectivity.
Its Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS all work well. However, there’s no 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. There’s only a USB type-C port for both charging and audio output.
In terms of security and biometrics, the device has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that works quite well too.
Battery and Charging Time
Battery life is the biggest selling point for the vivo Y29. Its 6500mAh BlueVolt battery can last nearly 2 days with my normal use on a single charge.
When playing games continuously (ML), the battery drains after around 10 hours.
Recharging to 100% battery capacity takes around 1 hour and 30 minutes using the 44W fast charger bundled in the box. This is longer than what I’m used to but still acceptable given the large battery capacity and price of the device.
Conclusion
The vivo Y29 is a good smartphone in terms of battery life, durability features, and performance in day to day tasks.
Its cameras, gaming performance, screen quality, charging time, and connectivity are all decent. However, it would have been better if it had full HD screen resolution and 5G connectivity.
It’s now available in vivo stores, kiosks, authorized retailers, and official vivo online stores including the vivo e-store.
vivo Y29 Review Summary
The vivo Y29 is a good smartphone in terms of battery life, durability features, and performance in day to day tasks.
- 6.68-inch HD+ IPS LCD Display (720 x 1608 Pixels), 264 ppi
- Android 15 Operating System
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6 nm) Chipset
- 8GB of RAM
- 50 Megapixel Rear Camera with LED Flash
- 8 Megapixel Front Camera
- Dual SIM
- 128GB or 256GB Internal Storage
- Expandable Up to 2048 via microSD
- 4G LTE, 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE & GPRS Networks
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (dual band)
- Bluetooth 5.0
- USB Type-C
- USB Type-C
- Fingerprint Sensor
- 6500mAh Battery
- 44W Fast Charging (vivo FlashCharge, 100% in 90 minutes)
- ₱8,999.00 Official Price in the Philippines
