Your boy is back with another review. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been using the Wiko Y61 phone as my second/work phone and I have to constantly remind myself that it’s a budget phone. But just because it’s a budget phone, doesn’t mean it’s all bad.
So for this review, just like in the previous one, we will be looking at the design, camera, performance, speed, battery life and I will give you my final thoughts in the end. The Wiko Y61 is available in Malaysia for only RM299. Without any further ado, let’s get into this review:
Design and Display
The phone has a 6-inch widescreen display and the built feels weird. I mean it’s light definitely but feels very plastic (I mean it’s RM299, so probably shouldn’t expect much). The one I got is the colour Deep Grey, and it’s also available in 2 other colours; Deep Green and Gold. The colour is not bad, very plain, but again this is a budget phone so it’s not anything fancy. The Gold one looks good though in my opinion.
The Wiko Y61 comes with a 480p display which is decent, not great but decent. YouTube video quality also will only go up to 480p so unfortunately you can’t watch anything in full HD. The speaker is located at the back of the phone at the bottom, more on that later.
Camera
Again, budget phone. The camera quality is decent as you can see some outdoor and indoor shots I took. The Wiko Y61 comes with 1 main 8MP camera and a 5MP selfie camera. Indoor shots aren’t that great especially if they are in lowlight.
Despite the 480p screen display, the main camera can actually record videos up to 1080p which is weird but okay I guess?
Testing the video quality of the #wikoy61 pic.twitter.com/KqwfpQs4W5
— LiveAtPC.com (@liveatpcdotcom) September 18, 2020
Battery Life
Here’s what caught me off guard. You’d be surprise to find out that the phone has removable battery which is not very common these days. I honestly don’t remember the last time I’ve used a removable battery phone so this was quite interesting to see.
It would come in handy though because you can buy a new battery if your phone starts to experience problems. The Wiko Y61 comes with a 3000 mAh battery life which is not bad. I’ve used this as my work phone so there wasn’t much heavy used but it definitely got me through the whole day.
Performance and Speed
Don’t expect amazing gaming experience with this phone. The only games I’ve played were the pre-installed games. It was again, decent. I feel like the touchscreen was either too sensitive or not as responsive as I kept messing up in the game (I’m not that terrible at gaming okay) so controlling the character(s) was a bit difficult.
If compared with the Wiko View 4 Lite, the Y61 isn’t as responsive when it comes to touch. There’s a delay when you swipe the screen and opening the apps may take a few seconds longer than most smartphones.
Final Thoughts
Was I impressed by the phone? Personally, no. Did I mind using it as a second/work phone? I was actually okay with that. It did come in handy and it did get the job done.
The battery life was good, lasted me the whole day. Touch screen could be improved to make it more responsive but at least it hasn’t lagged so far. Sound quality is not so great. The speaker isn’t that loud and from personal experience, there’s a bit of distortion when you put it on full volume.
But the 32GB of memory is definitely great. You can take up to 8000 photos with this thing and if you’re running out, the Wiko Y61 has expandable storage up 256GB with a MicroSD card. I love a phone with expandable storage, you’ll never when you need it.
Overall, if you’re looking for a second phone for basic use or for work then I feel like this phone can definitely do just that. Or if you’re looking for a phone to give 12 year olds or grandparents then this phone is perfect, though the 12 year olds may not be too happy about it but you get my point. It’s an easy phone to use that gets the job done.
