We’re down to the final month of the year, but it seems there’s no end to Vivo Philippines announcing new smartphones in the local market. This time, it’s the Vivo Y91i’s turn to take the spotlight for one of the industry’s leading brands.

SEE ALSO: 72 hours with the Vivo Y95: A hands-on review

The Y91i shares many of the features of its higher-end siblings, the Vivo Y91 and Y95, sporting an almost-bezel-less notched screen and a decently capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 under the hood. It also gets a 4,030mAh power cell for all-day battery life on a single charge.

However, it’s the Vivo Y91i’s more affordable retail price that could get people to sit up and take notice. The phone officially costs P8,499 (about $162) here, making it the cheapest Vivo phone in the Philippines with the company’s tiny-notch design.

Vivo Philippines announces the Y91i’s availability in the country

And combined with the narrow bezels on three sides of its 6.22-inch LCD, the Y91i flaunts a screen-to-body ratio of 88.6 percent, which is about as good as it gets on many premium phones today.

The glossy backing has two cameras — 13 and 2 megapixels — and comes in gradient colors or plain red. There’s also a fingerprint scanner at the back for safe and convenient unlocking in lieu of tapping in a password or PIN code.

READ ALSO: New Vivo Y91 smartphone is a cheaper Vivo Y95

The front camera has 8 megapixels and uses artificial intelligence or AI in Face Beauty mode to detect your gender, age, and skin tone and texture for better-looking selfies.

Specs-wise, the Vivo Y91i includes 2GB RAM and 16GB of native storage, which is less than what the Y91 and Y95 offer. This is a budget phone, after all. If you don’t mind the limited memory and you’re in the market for a stylish yet approachable phone with decent specs, you might want to add this Vivo to your Christmas wish list.

Vivo Y91i specs

• 6.22-inch Halo FullView display, 1,520 x 720 resolution (19:9)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 octa-core processor
• Adreno 505 GPU
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB storage
• Dual 13-megapixel and 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
• 8-megapixel front camera
• Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)
• 4,030mAh battery
• Android 8.1 Oreo

Learn About This Author

Ramon Lopez

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Reviews editor: Ramon "Monch" Lopez has 16 years of professional experience creating and editing content for print and digital publications such as Yahoo. He headed the gadgets-merchandising division of one of the Philippines’ largest retail operators somewhere in between.