Design and Build Quality
vivo Y22s follows the same design principles as the vivo Y35. That means you also get the notched display, the camera island which provides a good contrast to the color of the rear panel, the side-mounted power button which also functions as a fingerprint scanner, the USB-C port, and the headphone jack.
Perhaps the most striking thing about this look is the way that the rear panel responds differently to light and the angle you’re looking at. Sometimes, you’ll get a hint of yellow, blue, sometimes, even green. Not exactly the most functional feature, but it’s a breath of fresh air.
Display-wise, they’re almost similar – 6.55-inches on the Y22s, and 6.58 on the Y35. Both also have a 90Hz refresh rate, but the former gets a downgrade to HD+ resolution. Could I tell the difference? in day-to-day use, no. It’s probably when you start watching videos where you’ll notice that things just aren’t as detailed, colors aren’t as great.
Performance
At the helm of the vivo Y22s is a Snapdragon 680, yes, that’s the same chip that’s in the vivo Y35, and in a lot of other mid-range phones today. Again, I’m not a fan of its performance gaming-wise, but for day-to-day tasks, it delivers. The review unit we have has 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. vivo is offering a 4GB model as well, but in 2022, I just don’t think 4GB of RAM is enough, especially for those who don’t bother to check what apps are running in the background.
As with a lot of devices with this chip, gaming performance is more or less similar. Mobile Legends can be set to Ultra Graphics and High Refresh Rate with no issues, while heavier games like Genshin Impact need to be set to Low or the lowest preset to get a better experience.
Camera
Compared to the triple camera system on the Y35, the vivo Y22s sticks to a dual camera setup – consisting of a 50MP main snapper and a 2MP macro unit. I pretty much still prefer an ultra-wide any day, perhaps it costs more to put that setup here.
Anyway, quality-wise, it’s a fairly decent package that can capture photos with decent levels of details and clarity. In low-light, it’s a hit and miss, though I got more hits than misses. Sometimes, shots can show a lot of smudging, but depending on the subject, you can get some decent night shots out of this.
For selfies, the device lets you choose from a variety of portrait styles to spice up your shots and to match the mood. I personally don’t use them, but they’re good-to-have.
Software
vivo Y22s runs Funtouch OS 12 on top of Android 12, and basically features the same goodies as what you will get on the Y35. Things like Multi-Turbo 5.5, as well as Ultra Game Mode.
Performance-wise, I did not run into any major issues, though you may want to uninstall some of the pre-loaded apps that you don’t need.
Battery
With my use case – which means a lot of social media, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Grab, photography, and a bit of gaming, and mostly on data, I managed to get around 7 to 8 hours of screen on time on the vivo Y22s, which is actually a decent result. Using the supplied charger, zero to full took around 2 hours, which is quite a wait.
Verdict
The vivo Y22s offers good day-to-day performance, and decent gaming performance, depending on what you play, capable optics, and good battery life. On the flip side, it takes a while to fully charge from empty, its cameras offer less flexibility, and the display isn’t as enticing to look at.
Now, the vivo Y22s 8GB variant is priced at PHP 12,999, which is less, but very close to the Y35’s SRP of PHP 14,999. You get more flexible optics, a higher resolution display, and faster charging – things that are very important for me but could be less important for some.
If you are going to get the 8GB variant, you may want to consider getting the Y35 instead, unless you really have a strict budget. I just think that’s the device that offers better value.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
