Huawei Y5p Review: A Good Budget Smartphone
While midrange and flagship smartphones are always taking the spotlight in the smartphone scene almost every time, Huawei said there are still about "400 million users worldwide who choose to use an entry-level smartphone every year - but they do so without without access to some of the best features available." And that's the main reason why they are still making and releasing entry level devices such as the Y Series and this Y5p which bears a sub-Php5K price tag.
What's in the box
Just like other Y series smartphones, the Huawei Y5p comes in a white box with colored picture of the device in the front showcasing the device's front panel and its official name. By just looking at it, you will already know what kind of device you are getting from the inside. In this case, it is a notch-less and punch-hole less type of smartphone.
Inside the packaging is pretty straightforward, there is the Y5p unit itself in Phantom Blue color variant. Also there we can find the standard USB to microUSB charging cable and a regular charging brick. Take a good look at the charger though as it is something a bit different than usual, you may need to buy extra power adapter to use it. Apart from the usual User Guide and Warranty Card, the packaging also comes with a little card that says "App Guide" giving users a quick start-up guide on setting their new Y5p smartphone. They can do it via Phone Clone which allows them to seamlessly transfer their data and apps from their old phone to the Y5p, or download their apps from the AppGallery.
Of course, the SIM ejecting tool is also part of the packaging. Unfortunately, the Huawei Y5p does not come with a pair of earphones and a jelly case, although there is a screen protector pre-installed on the phone. The good thing is, the phone still sports a 3.5mm audiojack so using your existing one is not going to be an issue or even looking for one whether it's a high or low end headphones, it is going to work.
Display and Design
The Huawei Y5p sports a smaller 5.45-inch screen compared to most smartphones that we see these days being released in the Philippines. What's nice about this is it boasts an HD+ TFT IPS display resolution with 1440 x 720 pixel arrangement. Also, it has 81% screen-to-body ratio and 18:9 screen ratio offering about 10% more content in the display compared to a typical 16:9 smartphones around. And then as you can already notice, Huawei opted for a more traditional screen design here, no notch, no punch-hole whatsoever. But it still has the usual features like the front camera, earpiece (which doubles as the speaker), and the proximity sensor in the upper bezel. At the lower bezel, while it's a bit thicker, nothing is found there. The Back, Home, and Multitask buttons are all on-screen.
Now as for the quality of the display, it is actually bright and clear. Not as vibrant and good as the midrange devices though but for its price and being an entry-level one, it is a pretty nice screen to look at. Thanks to its HD+ display resolution, images and videos are sharp and colors are good. Texts are also easy to read and they are clearly rendered without any pixelations or rugged edges.
The display is bright as well especially for indoor use. For outdoor or direct sunlight use, while the screen is not the brightest, it is definitely viewable as I can still browse social media and read messages without any issues at all. My only complaint is the size of the screen, for its 5.45" measurement, it's quite small for a smartphone in today's standards. It is even a little bit harder to type in messages, for me, at times. For those who have smaller hands, it's going to be a much nicer user experience. But for users with bigger hands or fingers, typing would be a hit and miss.
Design-wise, I think the Y5p is a beautiful and stylish budget smartphone most especially the back panel, as you can see in the image below.
This smartphone is offered in three colors namely Midnight Black, Mint Green, and this one I got here, the Phantom Blue. All of them have matte and textured finish which is nice since it is not going to attract too much fingerprints and smudge and most of all it is not slippery in the hand. That, plus its compact form factor, the phone is so comfortable to use with one hand be it for casual browsing, responding to messages or being-watching movies or videos for a longer period of time. Plus, the Huawei Y5p is a slim and super lightweight of a smartphone too.
Also that camera module, it adds more look to it. It gives us the impression that it houses multiple camera lenses, when actually it does not.
Just a quick tour around the smartphone, at the bottom there is just the microUSB port and the microphone. On the right side are the volume rocker and power/lock key, while at the top is the 3.5mm audiojack. On the left side is nothing but the tripe-slot card tray, which means it can hold two 4G SIM cards and a microSD card all at the same time. The phone supports up to 512GB of microSD card.
Speaking of storage, the device comes with 32GB of internal storage. It's a good thing that Huawei decided to equip this one with a large 32GB internal storage, if it had 16GB, it would be really hard to recommend these days. About 22GB is available to users at initial boot and if this runs out, users can have a microSD card anytime without the need to sacrifice the SIM 2 slot.
Going back a little bit, you can notice that the bottom part of the phone does not have the speaker grille. That's because it is integrated with the earpiece located above the screen. Its placement is actually a good thing here because users won't accidentally block it when watching or playing mobile game in landscape mode as opposed to having the speaker at the bottom. And the speaker is quite loud too.
Now what about the fingerprint scanner? Sadly, there is none. However, there is the Face Unlock that users can use besides the traditional 6-digit code/PIN. While the Face Unlock works okay most of the time, it struggles in low light condition. So it's best if you setup the PIN as well.
Performance
For the phone's performance, it is powered by MediaTek Helio P22 processor, the SoC inside the pricier Huawei Y6p smartphone, paired with 2GB of RAM. Together with EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10 OS, don't expect the smartphone to be so fast and responsive. It is not, as we would expect from an entry level smartphone and at this price range, but it does not mean it is bad news though. Like I have said above, the Huawei Y5p is a capable smartphone, and what I mean by that is it's able to deliver the job you throw at it even beyond the normal or typical day to day tasks.
I am talking about gaming, surprisingly this phone can game. I tried playing graphics and heavy games like Mobile Legends, Call of Duty: Mobile, Asphalt 9 which I downloaded from the AppGallery alongside the Naruto: Slugfest. All ran just fine using the Huawei Y5p smartphone. And I think that's good to know.
Camera
And now for the camera. The Huawei Y5p comes with an 8MP on the rear with f/2.0 aperture and autofocus and LED flash, while the front facing shooter has 5MP selfie camera. Both rear and front cameras offer modes in Beauty, Photo, Video, Pro, Panorama, and HDR. As for video it can record in 720p and 1080p.
When it comes to the quality of photos and videos, generally they come out soft and a bit washed out but decent enough to be shared on social media sites. Photos can be enhanced though using third party photo editing apps. Photos and videos tend to look good when there is a good amount of light around, but the phone starts to struggle in producing better images in darker environment. You can check out some of the photo samples from the Huawei Y5p below.
Battery
On the inside, the Huawei Y5p houses a 3020mAh battery. That might look small compared to other latest smartphones that are being released recently, but the unit itself is also a small one, packs non-Full HD display resolution and not-so-power hungry processor. So that being said, the battery life on the Huawei Y5p is quite longer than I expected. With full battery charged and heavy to average use like browsing social media, watching Netflix and YouTube videos, and a little bit of casual gaming, it was able to last me about eight to nine hours.
As for charging the phone, since it does not come with a fast charger as expected of a smartphone of this caliber, so it takes about three hours to get to 100% from zero percent. Yeah, it takes a little bit of time to charge but it also takes a while to drain. So it's okay.
The AppGallery
Another good thing about this Y5p smartphone, despite having a very affordable price tag and in the enrty-level category, is that it still packs the most recent mobile OS and user interface from Huawei - EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10.
If you can't find your apps in the AppGallery, you can download them from third party marketplace like from APKPure. Or you can use the AppGo, more on it below.
The screenshot you see above is from the AppGo, another app you can download inside the AppGallery. This app will help you to find the best place to download your favorite apps. You can search the app that you would like to download here and it will direct you to either AppGallery or APKPure or even from the website of the application itself.
Final thoughts
The Huawei Y5p is perfect for users who would like to try an Android phone for the very first time such as kids or students especially those who are in the hunt for an affordable device that they can use for home schooling this coming school year. Also perfect for users on a tight budget who would like to get an updated Android experience and that can do day-to-day tasks without any problem such as making calls, responding to messages, and casual browsing and binge-watching.
The Huawei Y5p is only priced at Php4,490. And for that price tag, I think it offers a good deal. Overall performance and battery endurance are generally good. And the phone itself looks good too and super lightweight. It can handle two 4G SIM cards at the same time, so in case WiFi is down, you can still use two other 4G SIM cards as back up for online connections.
Yes, the Huawei Y5p is a good budget smartphone.
Huawei Y5p specs:
- 5.45-inch HD+ TFT IPS Display
- 1440 x 720 resolution
- MediaTek Helio P22 octa-core processor
- IMG GE8320 GPU
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB internal storage
- Supports microSD card up to 512GB
- 8MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus, and LED flash
- 5MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture and fixedfocus
- EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10
- Download app from the AppGallery
- No Google Play support
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Dual SIM
- 4G LTE
- 3.5mm audiojack
- Midnight Black, Phantom Blue, Mint Green
- 3020mAh battery
- Php4,490
The Huawei Y5p is available nationwide for only Php4,490. It can be purchased from Huawei Experience Stores and authorized retail partners as well as on Huawei Philippines' Lazada and Shopee stores.
I hope you are doing great, cheers!