Vivo Y500i

The Vivo Y500i has a standard, non-folding form factor measuring 166.6 mm tall, 78.4 mm wide, and 8.4 mm thick, with a total volume of 109.716096 cm³ and a weight of 219 g. One of its more notable physical traits is its IP68 ingress protection rating, which certifies the device as waterproof and capable of withstanding submersion to a depth of 1.5 metres. It does not feature a rugged build, so while it carries meaningful water resistance, it is not designed as a ruggedised device.

The Vivo Y500i uses an IPS LCD touchscreen measuring 6.75 inches, with a resolution of 720 x 1570 pixels at a pixel density of 256 ppi. It supports a 120Hz refresh rate and reaches a typical brightness of 1000 nits, which is a solid figure for an LCD panel. The display does not include branded damage-resistant glass, and it lacks support for HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and Always-On Display functionality. There is no secondary screen on this device.

The Vivo Y500i is driven by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, built on a 4nm process with a thermal design power of 4W, featuring an octa-core CPU arranged in a big.LITTLE configuration running at 2 x 2.3 GHz and 6 x 2 GHz across 8 threads, with 64-bit support included. Graphics are handled by the integrated Adreno 613 GPU clocked at 955 MHz, supporting DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2, and up to two displays simultaneously. The device comes with 12GB of DDR5 RAM running at 3200 MHz — expandable up to a maximum of 16GB — alongside 512GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage. Additional hardware-level features include integrated LTE, ARM TrustZone security, and integrated graphics, rounding out a well-specified performance package for this class of device.

The Vivo Y500i features a single-lens rear camera with a 50-megapixel CMOS sensor and an f/1.8 aperture, backed by phase-detection autofocus, touch autofocus, and continuous autofocus during video recording, though it lacks optical image stabilization, laser autofocus, and a back-illuminated sensor. Video recording tops out at 1080p at 30fps, with slow-motion recording supported, while HDR10 and Dolby Vision recording are not available. Manual controls cover exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, but manual shutter speed is absent, and the camera does not shoot in RAW format. Additional shooting modes include burst mode, in-camera panorama, and timelapse, while 360-degree panorama and 3D photo or video capture are not supported. A single LED flash is present on the rear — without dual-tone or RGB variants — while the 5-megapixel front camera sits at f/2.0 and has no front-facing flash, no secondary lens, and is not positioned under the display.

The Vivo Y500i runs Android 16, an open-source platform that supports multi-user access, widgets, split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, sharing intents, and the ability to offload apps to free up space. Personalisation options include theme customization, dynamic theming, dark mode, and an extra dim mode, while notification controls and customizable notifications give users a reasonable degree of management over alerts. On the privacy side, the device offers location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, clipboard warnings, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking protection and Mail Privacy Protection are not present. Further features include on-device machine learning, Live Text, full-page screenshots, a media picker, battery health check, offline voice recognition, voice commands, child lock, and phone tracking. Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, Quick Start, and the ability to function as a PC are not supported, and OS updates are not delivered directly from the vendor.

The Vivo Y500i houses a 7200 mAh rechargeable battery that is non-removable and comes with a charger included in the box. It supports 44W fast wired charging, and a battery level indicator is present to keep track of remaining charge. Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are not supported.

The Vivo Y500i features stereo speakers for audio output and supports aptX Adaptive for higher-quality Bluetooth audio streaming, though aptX, aptX HD, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are not available. The device does not include a 3.5mm headphone jack, and there is no built-in radio.

The Vivo Y500i supports 5G connectivity with download speeds of up to 2500 Mbits/s and upload speeds of up to 900 Mbits/s, alongside dual SIM capability and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC are both present, while the USB Type-C port runs on USB 2.0, and there is no HDMI output or external memory slot. For location and navigation, the device includes GPS with Galileo support, a compass, and an accelerometer, though a gyroscope, barometer, motion tracking, and optical tracking are absent. Biometric security is handled by a fingerprint scanner, while 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not featured. The device also includes an infrared sensor, but lacks a heart rate monitor, ANT+ support, DLNA certification, satellite SOS, crash detection, a built-in projector, and a stylus.

The Vivo Y500i includes a video light for illumination during video recording. The display is flat rather than curved, and it uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.