Vivo is rebranding its upcoming U3 as Vivo Y19, and this rebranded U3 (with slightly different hardware) has already found its way to Thailand and Vietnam. The Y19 borrows its design and hardware from U3 with the only difference being the MediaTek Helio P65 chipset which Y19 features, as opposed to the Snapdragon 675 baked into the U3.
With an identical design to Vivo U3, the Y19 comes packing a 6.53-inch display that produces an FHD+ resolution and is combined with an unremarkable waterdrop notch. On the back, you’re looking at the same three-lens setup and a rear-mounted fingerprint reader.
The side-bezels are paper-thin but the chin seems to be heavier than the forehead. Regardless, the phone manages to max out at an impressive 90.3% screen-to-body ratio. The back panel is offered in a glossy Magnetic Black and Spring White gradient hues.
The optics hardware remains fairly modest on this mid-tier offering. The 16-megapixel main shooter is paired with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, for a triple-camera package that is rounded off by a 16-megapixel selfie unit embedded inside the water-drop notch. The optics setup is augmented by AI which allows you to take super-wide-angle shots, remove backgrounds, beautify with AI and face unlock your device.
Under the hood, you’re looking at a P65 SoC coupled with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of native storage. Note that where U3 is expected to arrive in multiple memory variants, the Y13 has debuted with only a single configuration.
However, as typical of most Chinese mid-rangers, this hardware draws power from a massive 5,000 mAh battery. And that's not all, not only it supports an 18W fast-charge but also features reverse charging. The Y19 runs on a FunTouch OS 9.2-based Android Pie (9.0).
The starting price for this phone is expected to be roughly 39,000 PKR, excluding taxes. The Y19 offers a gorgeous design, excellent performance, a beefy battery, but it falls a bit short on the camera performance. Wouldn’t you expect your mid-ranged device to rock camera hardware superior to an entry-level offering? Let us know what you think!