Sporting a triple-camera setup with a tribal-vector theme in the rear, Vivo S1 has entered a market that demands both style and the specs to back it up. Retailing at PKR 34,900, this device comes with a MediaTek Helio P70 processor and 4GB/6GB RAM + 128GB ROM under the hood. Does Vivo S1 have the performance to back its looks?
Design And Display
Vivo devices are usually well designed and portray a natural visual appeal in terms of style, with the S1 being no exception. It sports a 6.38-inch display with an acute dew-drop notch at the top. The AMOLED screen has thin bezels on the sides, but the bottom chin feels comparatively thicker.
Sporting a plastic frame from the outset, the phone has a comfortable feel to it. The back however doesn’t quite meet the frame seamlessly; you’d feel a few rough edges from time to time. Similar to the Z1 Pro variant, this device also has a dedicated Google Assistant button on the side.
Vivo S1 comes in Diamond Black and Skyline Blue colors. The pattern at the back looks awesome, but things get ugly when scratches appear within the first few weeks of usage. A Corning Gorilla protection might have made things better here; the striking diamond pattern deserves that!
Performance and Hardware
Vivo S1 packs a MediaTek Helio P70 chipset supported by 4GB/6GB RAM and 128GB ROM. Running on Funtouch OS on top of Android 9, the UI feels incredibly customized. For starters, there is no app drawer, and app icons are arranged on the home-screen. Also, most Chinese phones copy iOS, and the lack of an app drawer is part of that. The only exceptions are Motorola phones (owned by Lenovo) and Asus phones.
Expect a lot of bloatware when turning on this phone for the first time. Thankfully, there isn’t any notification spam issue like the Oppo A9.
The MediaTek Helio P65 SoC powering the Vivo S1 does a good job, and you won’t notice lag or stutter in day-to-day tasks. This phone can pretty much run any app available on the Google Play Store. The phone manages idle battery hours quite well, and in our experience, the Vivo S1 did not lose too much power on stand-by.
Multitasking was quite easy considering we had the 6GB RAM variant. Occasional blips occur when playing heavy games like PUBG and COD Mobile, but you can expect that with a modest chipset running under the hood.
Camera
The price-tag doesn’t fully support the camera module that comes with the Vivo S1. Sporting a triple camera setup consisting of a 16MP primary sensor, 8MP Ultrawide and 2MP Depth modules, pictures are below average. In daylight, images are underexposed, detailing is somewhat blemished, and the ultrawide setting exaggerates a lot of color in saturation.
The front camera setting is a 25MP pop-up selfie shooter that works well with Vivo’s camera app. Again, selfies are detailed but scenes get overexposed in this case. There’s a portrait mode here, and the edge-detection works awesome. Overall, picture results are disappointing.
Battery
Vivo S1 packs a 4500mAh battery that lasts 24-36 hours with normal usage. The device supports fast-charging, so expect your battery stat to go from 0%-100 within an hour. It comes with a setting called Idle hours which improves the battery’s health and overall safety.
Verdict
An eye-catching exterior, a fast in-display fingerprint scanner and 1080p AMOLED display. Specs are good, but the camera has a disappointing effect on our minds when we think about the price-tag. We’d recommend browsing through Infinix models. If you’re a camera-person, they offer better phones at cheap rates. Overall, the phone works well. Excluding the camera module, we’re happy with performance.
