vivo Y31s 5G review – Tough Budget Phone with Large 6,500mAh Battery Tested

The latest addition to the vivo Y-series of tough budget phones, the vivo Y31s 5G follows the formula of its forebears with a tough chassis, long battery life and a large display at a relatively low price tag for 2026.

vivo graciously loaned us a sample for field testing and after taking it for a whirl around the block, here’s our vivo Y31s 5G review where we share if it’s worth what you pay for.

vivo Y31s 5G review – Build and Design

Intended for a cost conscious audience, our vivo Y31s 5G review sample is made primarily of polycarbonate sandwiching an aluminium  frame though this barely scratches the surface of how much effort vivo has lavished on its durability to most common mishaps.

On paper, the vivo Y31s 5G has an IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance rating which enables it to survive in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for 30 minutes at a time. To achieve this, the phone has an internal triple-layer water resistant design with foam-sealing adhesive, a sealed frame and reinforced protection for every port to prevent water ingress.

The phone also has a robust SGS Five-Star Certification for Overall Unit Drop Resistantance and what vivo refers to as mil-spec cushioning for resisting drops. While vivo hasn’t furnished specific numbers, they’ve claimed that the phone survived a total of 42,000 drops from a small height in controlled lab tests. 

In our time testing the phone, it managed to easily shrug off waist-height drops several times and at its official unveiling in Malaysia, vivo dropped the phone from the top of a small crane at about a two-storey height with the phone emerging unscathed.

For additional peace of mind, vivo has also furnished a shock-absorbing TPU casing precisely cut to the dimensions of the phone for additional damage resistance as standard issue with every unit sold in Malaysia. Also bundled with every Y31s 5G is a 44W quick charger with a UK-style plug, a USB-C cable as well as the obligatory paperwork and a SIM eject pin.

Durability aside, our vivo Y31s 5G review sample adheres to contemporary aesthetics with a flat backplate, rounded corners and curved edges across the backplate for better ergonomics.

The base has a USB-C charger and a grille for a speaker with the corresponding speaker emplaced in a slit above the display to form a stereo pair. The left hosts a SIM card tray while the right hosts the usual power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader and a volume rocker while the top is otherwise unremarkable. 

Up front, the phone has a generously sized 6.79-inch IPS LCD display with FHD+ resolution and up to a 120Hz refresh rate as well as 1,050 nits peak brightness.  Unfortunately, the display isn’t considered as fully colour calibrated and only has 83% NTSC which falls short of the standards needed for serious content creators though seeing its intended audience of casual users looking for an affordable everyday phone, this isn’t an issue. 

While the bottom chin is fairly thick, the side and top bezels for the display remain relatively thin, Perched up top is a slit for the earpiece as well as a punch hole for the single 32MP selfie camera.

Of note is that the front is protected by what vivo refers to as Guardian Glass that has been claimed to offer 100% more puncture resistance and drop resistance on rough surfaces in lab tests though there’s no hard data on how it compares to Gorilla Glass.

The backplate of our vivo Y31s 5G review unit is where things start getting interesting. Consisting of polycarbonate, the backplate comes in a metallic finish done up in light purple that they’ve referred to as Midnight KL Purple. Alternatively you can score it in a conservative shade of black.

Up close, the Midnight KL Purple finish does look striking with striations that reflect in the sunlight and relatively good resistance to fingerprints and smudges. However, it’s a bit on the slippery side though the provided casing does address this issue.

Integrated into the camera housing is a unique Dynamic Light notification light that lights up to music and to inform you on incoming calls, notifications and battery level with your choice of multiple selectable colours. Alongside the camera housing is an LED flash.

@hitechcentury Unboxing the tough yet affordable vivo Y31s 5G in purple for the Malaysia market! @vivo MY #vivoy31s5g #vivomalaysia #learnontiktok #techtok #hitechcentury ♬ Campus Spring Breeze – Ausku Studio

Ergonomics are solid with the curved edges and corners making it comfortable for one-handed use though the plasticky feel of the phone is obvious when held.

vivo Y31s 5G review – Performance and Benchmarks

Running under the hood of our vivo Y31s 5G review unit is an entry-level Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor paired with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and either 8GB LPDDR4X RAM. Another variant with 6GB RAM is also available at a lower price. Users can also assign 8GB of virtual RAM off the onboard storage. 

Unfortunately, you can’t assign how much virtual RAM you want to use though you can disable it entirely to save on space. Out of the box, the phone runs Android 16 with vivo’s own OriginOS 6 overlaying it that has Circle to Search and Google Gemini to answer queries. 

Combined, the specifications mean that the phone is intended primarily for everyday usage like web browsing, calls and map navigation rather than more demanding tasks like gaming and video editing. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

Price	RM1,199 (6GB/256GB storage), RM1,300 (8GB RAM/256GB storage)
Display	6.79-inch IPS LCD , 2,408 x 1,080 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 83% NTSC, 1,050 nits peak brightness (HBM)
Processor	Snapdragon 4 Gen 2
OS	Android 16 w/ OriginOS 6
Memory	8GB LPDDR4X RAM/ 256GB UFS 3.1 storage [review sample] 6GB RAM/256GB variant avaIlable
Camera	50MP f/1.8 w f/3.0 0.08MP [rear] / 32MP f/2.45 [front]
Battery	6,500mAh Li-Ion w/ 44W fast charging
Size/Weight	166.14 x 77.01 x 8.39mm / 209g

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with the default 8GB of virtual RAM, our vivo Y31s 5G review sample with 8GB RAM managed to score the following:

3DMark Wild Life	743
3D Mark Wild Life Unlimited	743
3DMark Wild Life Extreme	179
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	180
Geekbench 6 Single Core	924
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	2140
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	425
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	N/A
Geekbench AI CPU Quantised	1116
Geekbench AI GPU Quantised	237
PCMark Work 3.0	8861
PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life	25 hours 29 mins

In terms of performance,  our vivo Y31s 5G review sample performed within expectations with its entry-level Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor though it wasn’t able to run the Geekbench 6 Vulkan GPU test. It also wasn’t able to run the more demanding benchmarks like Steel Nomad Light and Solar Bay.

The Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 delivers the level of performance expected from an entry-level chipset. Everyday tasks feel smooth, but demanding games suffer from lower frame rates and occasional stuttering. 

It isn’t going to outgun any midrange phone let alone a flagship device but if you keep your expectations modest and have a usage profile that’s primarily oriented on day to day tasks like web browsing, emails, getting directions on Google Maps and the like, you’ll have a generally pleasant experience.

You’ll be able to run more popular older titles like PUBG and Call of Duty Mobile and it was even able to run Genshin Impact on default settings.

Where the phone excelled is in terms of endurance. In PCMark’s benchmark test, it managed to offer an impressive 25 hours and 29 minutes of battery life which is quite a feat for any phone, more so for something in its price range 

In practical usage terms, our vivo Y31s 5G review unit with light to normal usage managed to survive a good day and a half. This involved a combination of data and WiFi, screen brightness set to auto and liberal usage of social media with a few voice calls, light camera usage and a bit of Google Maps.

Typically, budget phones use a lower resolution 720p display to keep costs down but vivo has surprisingly equipped the vivo Y31s 5G with a 1080p panel which offers crisper visuals.

However, the screen isn’t fully colour calibrated and only maxes out at 88% NTSC which doesn’t quite work out to the usual 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut required by content creators though to be fair, this isn’t the intended audience of the phone.

On its own merits, the vivo Y31s 5G’s LCD display offers good viewing angles, is bright enough for viewing outdoors without having to squint and offers good colours for watching YouTube and browsing through websites.

Of note are its stereo speakers that can be cranked up to an impressive 400% volume, allowing it to be heard even in a crowd. When dialled up to maximum 40% volume, the speakers still remained audible without any distortion though detail, sound staging and bass are understandably underwhelming.

While the most immediate use for this level of enhanced volume would be for parties, it comes in surprisingly handy for delivery riders who are using the phone for hands-free calls and navigation when on the road.

vivo Y31s 5G Review – Cameras

Our vivo Y31s 5G review unit has a basic set of cameras that consist of a single 50MP main camera on the rear paired with a depth sensor. There’s no optical image stabilisation but you do get autofocus and  up to 10x digital zoom with videos offering similar levels of zoom and max out at 1080p@60fps video capture. The front 32MP selfie camera lets you take mugshots and is also able to capture videos at 1080p@30fps.

Shots in daylight are serviceable out to 2X zoom but shots after dark have several seconds of shutter lag and look soft at best. For best results, you’ll need to stick to brightly lit conditions.

The front selfie camera does the job with fair skin tones and detail though like the rear camera, you’ll need bright lighting to get decent shots. In general, the vivo Y31s 5G’s cameras are adequate for general tasks like the usual selfies and food shots for casual users.

Should you buy the vivo Y31s 5G?

The vivo Y31s 5G is a tough budget phone with a large display, loud stereo speakers and good battery life. If you can live with the underwhelming cameras and modest performance, this budget phone is worth a look.

vivo Y31s 5G review sample courtesy of vivo Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.vivo.com/my/products/y31s-5g