vivo Y31s 5G trades 2GB of RAM for a much sharper screen. Does it matter?

The vivo Y31s 5G keeps more of the Y31 5G than its name suggests — it’s more of a refresh than a new phone. Under the hood, the Y31s has the same Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor, 6,500mAh battery, 44W charging and 256GB storage.

The most noticeable change starts with memory; the Y31s drops from 8GB of physical RAM to 6GB. In return, the display gets an upgrade, moving from the Y31’s 6.68-inch 1608 × 720 panel (264ppi) to a larger 6.72-inch 2408 × 1080 screen (393ppi). Both support refresh rates of up to 120Hz.

The other major upgrade is in the selfie camera, jumping from 8MP to 32MP. While four times the pixels doesn’t necessarily mean four times the photo, it’s at least a substantial resolution upgrade. The rear cameras are unchanged, sporting a 50MP main camera and a 0.08MP auxiliary sensor.

The Y31s 5G has a 50MP main camera and a 0.08MP secondary sensor. vivo

Is 6GB enough?

vivo adds up to 6GB of Extended RAM, but of course that does not magically turn this into a 12GB phone. The missing 2GB will likely cost some multitasking headroom, as offloading and reading from extended RAM is not quite as quick as native RAM; it’s less of an issue if you are not a heavy multitasker. However, it will be an obstacle if you are reliant on Circle to Search, which has a minimum requirement of 8GB of native RAM.

Obviously, without a hands-on, we can’t say with any certainty how often these differences will actually annoy you. What is less ambiguous is the screen: a considerably sharper display that you can see every time you pick up the phone. If you value that and a better selfie camera, the trade-off may not automatically be a bad one.

The vivo Y31s 5G is priced at SGD 399 for 6GB + 256GB and comes in Glowing Black and Midnight KL Purple.