Features

vivo Y35: Sets the bar higher for entry-level phones

Hard not to recommend

Published

September 9, 2022

GadgetMatch

I’m sure a lot of us have experienced using entry-level smartphones at some point in our lives. We can still remember the burden of choosing which apps to keep with the lack of storage. There’s also keeping usage at a minimum because of the slow performance and never missing out on an overnight charge or else you won’t have a phone the next day.

Sadly, these are struggles that a lot of us just learned to live with. We simply accepted these drawbacks since it’s what we can afford.

But now, the time has come to finally bid farewell to these challenges.

Once again, vivo levels up the playing field and shocks the entry-level smartphone market with this new contender. A smartphone that boasts high performance, massive storage capacity and one of the fastest charging to ever set foot in this price segment — the vivo Y35.

Let us share with you the noteworthy features.

Really quick fast charging with a battery that keeps you going

With everything we can do with smartphones nowadays, we always seem to run out of power. And seeing people lug around a power bank plugged to their phones has already been a norm. It’s either that or just keep your phone plugged and remove it when you’re ready to go.

Thankfully, that won’t be the case anymore with the vivo Y35. Loaded with a 44W FastCharge, charging speeds on this tier of smartphones has never been faster.

This phone is capable of charging its internal 5,000mAh battery up to 70 percent in just over 30 minutes. Which means it’ll likely be fully charged in time for you to leave if you plug it in the morning before you take a shower.

Seriously, these are speeds that we only get to experience on flagships or other higher end phones. And having this available on their Y series is mind-blowing.

Plus, having that large battery capacity means we can now have more time for content creation, media consumption and gaming without needing to stay near a power outlet.

More storage than we probably need

It wasn’t too long ago when we were buying phones that had 64GB storage and thought that was already enough. Nowadays, that amount of storage is far from bare minimum. We sometimes even see people buying another phone to have a spare one for leisure and media storage aside from their daily driver.

This problem is pretty much solved with the Y35’s 256GB internal storage that is expandable up to 1TB. Having such a massive amount of storage, we’ll probably be torn about which games to play. We can download so much on this phone without worrying about how much we have left.

At that size, we can even use this phone as a handy media storage device for transferring movies from our laptop or desktop. And the low storage warning will take longer to show up.

Processor and RAM: Designed with speed in mind

The vivo Y35 is the first in the Y series to be packed with 8GB of RAM plus 8GB of extended RAM that is paired with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset. That means, not only is this phone capable of storing all the apps we plan on using, but it’ll also run it smoothly.

As we all well know, gaming demands some high horsepower and this phone has that exactly. Having that Snapdragon chipset, I’m sure this phone is already in the radar of gamers.

And in our initial tests with Call of Duty: Mobile, we can already tell that this does not disappoint.

But perhaps the best part is, apps won’t close anymore whenever we switch between them. Having such a big buffer in RAM is a tremendous convenience.

Photogenic design but can also snap your photos

We’ve grown quite familiar with the designs of entry-level phones. We can genuinely say that this one is a big stand out. As you can see in these photos, the Dawn Gold colorway is just absolutely stunning to look at.

Simply by the way it looks, we already noticed some people glancing at this phone when we were taking its photos.

The back has a subtle texture that kind of reminiscent of touching precious gemstones and the matte glittery finish isn’t a smudge magnet at all. Combine that with a metal frame with curved edges and we have ourselves a phone that not only feels premium but also one you can surely brag in your trendy mirror selfies.

But not only does this phone look great in photographs, it also takes great ones as well.

Coming from a brand who has always produced excellent shooters, we already expected that the cameras on these would perform well. The Y35 sports a triple camera setup that has a 50MP main camera, 2MP Bokeh camera and 2MP Macro camera.

Judging by these sample photos, we can agree that it is on point.

It captures great detail with portraits and landscapes and it also doesn’t back down even for night shooting.

Faster and more fluid display than before

We’ve always thought that better display and sound quality are features that are only reserved for the top end market.

Which is why we’re surprised with the display on the Y35. This phone feasts our eyes with its 6.58-inch, FullHD+, 90Hz display that is even paired with Hi-Res Audio.

Crispy was actually the first word that came to my mind upon seeing this. You can really see how sharp the images are being displayed thanks to its high resolution.

From swiping and navigating the interface to streaming videos on YouTube, everything felt fluid in a visual sense. You won’t even need to look for the difference from other entry-level offerings as it is very evident how improved this display experience is.

To put it simply, the media consumption experience on this phone shoots way above its weight class.

The vivo Y35 is simply hard not to recommend

Considering that these are just our initial impressions on the vivo Y35 already says a lot.

Believe it or not, I think vivo has yet again set a higher standard for all brands to follow with all the features they decided to put in this device.

At the price it is being offered, I even doubt that we can find a phone that is packed with the same features of the Y35.

With the super fast 44W Flash Charge, a very abundant 256GB storage, the up to the task performance of the Snapdragon 680 chipset with 8GB of RAM and the high resolution 90Hz refresh rate screen all shelled in a beautiful package, the vivo Y35 is a phone that is hard not to recommend.

Whether you are a working professional, a student or a content creator, there’s no person who wouldn’t benefit from the features this phone has to offer.

Price and availability

The vivo Y35 retails for PhP 14,999 and is available in Dawn Gold and Argate Black. It will be available online starting September 3, 2022 on their official Shopee, Lazada, Tiktok Shop and vivo e-store. While you can also purchase it from any vivo Concept store nationwide starting September 10, 2022.

vivo is also giving away a free Voguard TWS and a DITO SIM Card for purchases of the vivo Y35 from their official online stores.

This feature is a collaboration between GadgetMatch and vivo Philippines.

Features

Can the REDMI Note 15 Pro+ 5G Survive?

REDMI Titan Durability Challenge!

Published

January 17, 2026

GadgetMatch and Michael Josh Villanueva

As someone who travels and is outdoors a lot, THE Michael Josh will be the first to admit that he is NOT gentle with his phones.

They live in his pockets, bags, hands. They get dropped, they get wet, and they get dusty.

So when REDMI asked him to test something they call “REDMI Titan Durability,” he figured the only fair way to do it was to put the REDMI Note 15 Pro+ 5G to the ultimate durability test.

Reviews

POCO M8 Pro review: Goin’ loco over this POCO

POCO starts 2026 with some bang

Published

January 15, 2026

Vincenz

Looking back at my first few months with GadgetMatch back in 2018 nostalgically evoked my Pocophone F1 core memory. It was touted as THE “flagship killer for less.”

Pre-pandemic, that “Pocophone” simply became “POCO” and became an “independent” kiddo who moved out of its parent’s house.

Almost eight years after that very first iteration, I’ve finally had my first (and long overdue) POCO-perience with the latest POCO M8 Pro.

Design: Repurposed with a purpose

While I have not held a POCO phone until very recently, I am still aware of the brand’s offerings over the years.

Seeing the POCO M8 Pro for the first time instantly reminded me of last year’s Redmi Note 14 Pro series. That’s not me saying POCO blatantly ripped the aesthetics as the POCO X7 also had the same design language.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

Like a full circle moment, the aforementioned phones were launched back a year ago.

In all honesty, it still confuses me which direction Xiaomi is heading, especially with the non-stop rebadging of existing POCO and REDMI phones — just with scrambled internals and CMF (color, materials, finish).

Having said that, I still consider the M8 Pro a level up from the last M7 Pro. The former’s design felt like it was not given much importance.

The centered camera island with a squircle cutout seemed like a signature design element of Xiaomi’s newer midrange line moving forward.

I also love how the phone felt in my hands. Even with that plastic back, it felt grippy enough when held.

You have to be wary of fingerprint smudges though — especially if you rock the black colorway. Luckily, the green shade I have still looks clean despite those unwanted smears.

And, if you’re brave enough to clean it in running water, the POCO M8 Pro boasts not just one, not two, but quadruple IP ratings: IP66, IP68, IP69, and even IP69K. These used to be exclusive only among 2025 flagships.

Now Playing: IDOL I

Much like my fanaticism to anything tech, the same can be said with Korean Pop Stars. More known as “K-Pop Idols”, I have been a huge geek of K-Pop for 16 long years (and still counting).

Interestingly, after finishing a series that just ended in Netflix, IDOL I swiftly came by. Even if I am the type of viewer who values the drama’s synopsis more than the cast involved, this K-Drama instantly hit two birds in one.

For one, its starred by a true iconic idol herself: Choi Sooyoung — or one of the nine members of SNSD / Girls’ Generation a.k.a the ultimate 2nd generation K-Pop girl group I’ve been stanning since my youth.

Although Maeng Se-na here is a heartless and “selfish” lawyer, she is the opposite for being a huge (yet silent) fan of “Gold Boys” with Do Ra-ik as his “Ult” (or Ultimate Bias).

In a wild turn of events, the idol became a “murderer” overnight — blaming him for the sudden death of his co-member after waking up from their drinking session.

But, no matter how the general public looks at him as the prime suspect, finding faults against Ra-ik is difficult. That’s pointing out the fact that he was just sleeping in his bed while his former bandmate slash loyal friend got stabbed without clear answers.

I can pretty much say the same thing with the 6.83-inch screen of the POCO M8 Pro: I cannot see any fault at all.

For one, it’s an AMOLED display that made me enjoy binging the first four episodes non-stop. But, being able to display 68.7 billion Colors and 12-bit color depth aside from the usual HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support? That’s likely unusual for a phone in such price point.

And, with a 1.5K display resolution plus a pixel density of 447 ppi, it’s as crisp as it could get. Watching it outdoors is neither a problem with its mighty 3200 nits peak brightness.

While my eyes aren’t very sensitive to light and flicker, its 3840Hz PWM dimming and TÜV Rheinland Flicker-Free and Low Blue Light certifications are still worth mentioning — especially if you stay up all night binge-watching hours worth of titles like yours truly.

On Queue: Apink’s RE:LOVE + Chuu’s XO, My Cyberlove

Pumping up the volume by 60%, it’s expected that the POCO M8 Pro possesses a louder than ever sound output. However, my audio assessment doesn’t end just there.

Just like POCO starting the year with a bang, the K-Pop scene in January 2026 has already exploded with real hit bangers.

First and foremost, Apink finally gathered again to released their 11th Mini Album (their previous Mini Album dates back to 2020). As per usual, I used Apple Music to take full advantage of that Lossless format.

Their title track “Love Me More” not only brought a lot of the group’s nostalgic intro and dance break instrumental during their early days in the industry, it also reminded me of the pre-millennium K-Pop era back in the early 90s.

Pair that with b-sides such as “Sunshine” that sounded pure and soulful, this latest mini album will truly make Pink Pandas’ hearts flutter.

In addition, Chuu (LOONA) finally releases her 1st Full Album titled “XO, My Cyberlove.” It is a complete opposite of her first ever solo song “Heart Attack” almost a decade ago which highlighted her cutesy, innocent charms.

The comeback track of the same title is as quirky and whimsical as it gets. Not only does it highlight Chuu’s light yet ethereal vocals, but it shows her newer, more mature side.

Furthermore, lyrics that evoke unexpected budding love in this digital era where everyone enjoys making connections through the cyber world.

With POCO M8 Pro’s speakers, I fully enjoyed playing the entirety of her freshly-baked album while I was writing this piece. Teeny Tiny Heart and Love Potion are currently my fave b-sides from this release.

Such music fulfillment was possible with the Dolby Atmos stereo speaker setup and Hi-Res Audio support of the M8 Pro. Not only its proudly loud, the audio produced is full and immaculate with clear line between its highs, mids, and lows.

Performance: Adequate for most

On paper, the POCO M8 Pro runs Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 SoC based on a 4nm process. As confusing as it seems, this is different from the more powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 4.

That being told, game settings will vary depending on how demanding one is.

For instance, CoDM (Call of Duty: Mobile) runs in Very High and Max settings upon first set-up.

Meanwhile, Racing Master (based on NVIDIA’s PhysX engine) can run Ultra settings at 60fps.

However, it throttles during the first two ranked races.

Fortunately, the game detects if it gets sluggish — suggesting lowering down the settings altogether.

Lastly, playing Zenless Zone Zero is doable but, at the lowest graphics by default.

You wouldn’t dare to go past it as Combat Mode will literally feel like combatting the phone itself due to how heavy the game is.

The only “remedy” for these hardware limitations? It’s none other than the Game Turbo mode that boosts graphics performance and input through Xiaomi’s software advancements. And it sort of helped make the gameplay smoother, but not fully.

For the rest of apps that are not graphics-intensive, the M8 Pro can breeze through various apps without hiccups, do split-screens, or multitasking along floating windows with ease.

I can truthfully say that the only thing dragging the POCO M8 Pro down is the software as a whole.

After experiencing the beauty of vivo’s OriginOS 6 and HONOR’s MagicOS 10, Xiaomi’s HyperOS still feels like an after-thought. While it can keep up with the modern-day Android features, its stability and optimizations simply don’t make the cut.

Besides, its built-in AI tools, device ecosystem, as well as cross-compatibility functionality aren’t as polished as what you get on other Chinese brands. Let alone, a rip-off from everyone’s fruit rival without much feature improvements.

Seriously, Xiaomi?

Worst thing? Maybe the ad slash bloatware infestation found not just on the lock screen. Even transferring personal files through Xiaomi’s native File Manager app plays an unskippable ad.

Battery: Eat it up! Eat it, eat it up! 🍝🎶

At 8.31mm, the POCO M8 Pro is as slender as it can get. How they were able to fit a 6500mAh battery inside its chassis is a true feat of engineering.

For the record, this is the first POCO M-series smartphone to have such a ginormous battery. It joins the same league as the POCO F8 Ultra, F7, and the X7 Pro (in India).

For added context, the M7 Pro, as well as the X7 with a similar form factor, only had a 5110mAh battery. But, numbers are just part of the story.

In day-to-day scenarios with light to moderate usage, the POCO M8 Pro can last you a full day — even more when you hit the bed with around 30% to spare.

As one would expect though, the biggest hogging can be felt when playing games.

During my gameplay stress test, downloading resources in Racing Master for about 30 minutes already consumed 5% charge (92% down to 87%). An hour of racing ate up 11 percent — from 87% down to 76%.

Letting it rest on my desk for 18 hours, the phone depleted to 51%.

At around 9 in the evening, I then started playing HoYoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero for exactly an hour. Battery charge went down further to 36%. Then, a 1.5-hour game in CoDM resulted to a 28% battery percentage. And, as of writing, the POCO M8 Pro still had a 3 percent charge left in its massive tank.

That said, the POCO M8 Pro comes with Xiaomi’s 100W wired HyperCharge speeds — adapter still bundled in the box.

By default, the battery charging speed is set in regular with the prompt / option to enable boosting.

In my GadgetMatch Charge Test results, it can be seen that the difference isn’t too far off.

	*Boosted HyperCharge*	*Regular HyperCharge*	*PPS Charging* (UGREEN 100W Nexode)
*START TIME* *From 0%*	1:11AM	3:10PM	4:06PM
3 minutes	10%	8%	1%
5 minutes	17%	11%	4%
*10 minutes*	25%	18%	13%
15 minutes	40%	23%	21%
20 minutes	46%	32%	28%
*30 minutes*	70%	50%	46%
45 minutes	88%	71%	67%
*1 hour*	99%	91%	84%
1 hour 15 minutes	–	99%	96%
*END TIME* *100%*	2:14AM 1 hour 3 minutes	4:27PM 1 hour 17 minutes	5:30PM 1 hour 24 minutes

PPS Charging is also possible. Although the device only showed “Quick Charge” while being filled up, it’s safe to say that it performs as fast as Xiaomi’s regular HyperCharge with a super close margin of only seven minutes.

Cameras: Surprisingly Satisfying

Prospective buyers of the M8 Pro wouldn’t have a hard time dealing with its conventional camera configuration: a 50MP f/1.6 main (wide) camera based on Light Fusion 800’s 1/1.55-inch sensor. That’s paired with a less outstanding 8MP f/2.2 UWA (ultra-wide angle) camera.

For the most part, the main camera does its job very well considering this type of device.

With the satisfactory 1x image sensor, 2x zoom is also possible, thanks to in-sensor cropping.

I honestly used the 2x mode more than I thought — especially when capturing my cats and food I devour.

You can go beyond the bounds. But, with obvious hardware limitations, the camera processing can only do so much.

Once that natural light disappears, it will be tricky to take low-light shots as this has NO dedicated Night Mode feature. No luck if you are using them indoors with artificial light around.

Instead, regular Photo Mode automatically detects a low-light subject and toggles Night Mode processing by itself.

While most results are satisfying, it’s also a testament that its cameras are far from being flawless.

Good thing, the flash exists for a funkier look in subjects that suit it — food specifically.

Portraits weren’t missed. Although it only relies on some software-based processing, it still gets the job done of separating the subject away from the background — humans and pets alike.

Personally, the aperture function was a bit of a nuisance.

For context, these shots were set to a low “f/1.8 aperture.” But, the M8 Pro rendered DoF (Depth of Field) that isn’t as shallow as what it’s supposed to show.

My frustration continues as the setting defaults back to f/4.5 after quitting and re-opening the camera app. That’s not even the standard lens opening when taking portrait photos.

And while we’re already here, selfies taken with its front-facing shooter.

Is the POCO M8 Pro your GadgetMatch?

While this isn’t the “flagship killer” most expect from a POCO phone, it’s hard not to go loco over how well-rounded yet wallet-friendly this POCO phone is — especially in the year 2026 where inflation is still unstoppable alongside the almost instantaneous and ridiculous RAM price hike.

ICYMI, the POCO M8 Pro has a starting price of GBP 299 / SG$ 389 / RM 1199 / PhP 16,999 (around US$ 279) for the 8+256GB configuration.

Meanwhile, the 12+512GB variant that I handle is priced at GBP 349 / SG$ 449 / RM 1499 / PhP 19,999 (approx. US$ 359).

Its closest rival is none other than the HONOR X9d. Coincidental or not, it was launched just a day after the unveiling of the M8 Pro.

Frankly, the only thing you’ll let go from HONOR’s sweet treat are its monstrous 8300mAh battery and more polished OS. This POCO-ffering blows it out of the water with a greater chipset, faster wired charging, bigger and better display, capable cameras, durability never forgotten.

Although it wasn’t totally highlighted, the POCO M8 Pro is undoubtedly a rebadged REDMI Note 15 Pro+ — Xiaomi’s midranger that heavily markets its “Titan Durability” capabilities.

The POCO M8 Pro has them all: from its sturdy aluminum frame, four IP ratings, even the fully-shielded front glass care of Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The biggest disparity? REDMI has a 200MP main camera over POCO’s 50MP shooter.

Despite some inconsistencies, the POCO M8 Pro is still an all-around midranger that will satisfy most users who want to purchase a shiny new smartphone without burning holes in your pockets.

It is a Swipe Right, Super Swipe, and a worthy recipient of the GadgetMatch Seal of Approval.