Vivo has recently released the Vivo Z1 Pro (Review) in India and the pricing was well competitive. This smartphone was not that bad when I was reviewing it here. Now, the Chinese manufacturer has come up with even one more smartphone which costs just a little higher and it is known by the name of Vivo S1. This is part of a new S series that the company has come up with and S symbolizes Style. The Vivo S1 price is rather stylish, at least regarding the design, but what about the power, is it as gorgeous on the inside? We test it to know whether it is so or not.
Vivo S1 Design
Vivo smartphones are typically stylish and this smartphone is not left out in the arrangement. The Vivo S1, has a sizeable screen of 6. Screen size of 38 inches with a very minimal top central notch in the water droplet shape. Vivo has gone for AMOLED option and the Vivo S1 comes equipped with an in-display fingerprint scanner. They border the screen at the side which is slim compare to the wide lower part of the screen.
Currently, the Vivo S1 comes in two colour options; Diamond Black and Skyline Blue; we had the former for the review. It possess a black laminate back, with a diamond pattern done on it and it also has gradient colours. Depend on the angle at which the light strikes the back panel, the diamond patterns appear that actually looks rather eye-catching.
Nonetheless, there is not much to like about the material that the back panel of the Vivo S1 is made of as it is rather susceptible to scratches. We would have rather want Corning Gorilla Glass as also seen in the Redmi Note 7 pro which we have reviewed on this blog. The Vivo S1 carries a triple camera module at the back that is a little raise but features a metal ring around it, so it ought to not get scratch.
Performance, Software and Battery life
The Vivo S1 marks an industry first as it’s the first device to be power by MediaTek’s Helio P65 processor. The octa-core chip has been clock at 2GHz and works alongside 6GB of RAM and a 128GB of built-in, user-expandable storage. Now, for the S1’s price, you can instead opt for a smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710/712 processor, which do perform better when it comes to synthetic benchmarks. For instance, take the similarly-price Vivo Z1 Pro (review), which is back by the Snapdragon 712 chip. The handset secured 1,85,063 points in Antutu’s 3D benchmark, leaving the S1 to play catch up with a score of 1,46,716 points.
Benchmarks aside, I never felt that the S1 was slowing me down during my time with the phone. I could comfortably jump in and out of applications, play casual games like Clash Royale without any hassles and even run intensive titles like PUBG on the phone. Suffice it to say, while it might not be the fastest phone for the price, it still gets the job done.
Vivo S1 Price, specifications and software
Xiaomi’s new Vivo S1 smartphone is the first that is being release in India to be incorporate MediaTek Helio P65 SoC. The 12-nanometer process builds the Helio P65, a mid-end chip. It equipped with one dual-core ARM Cortex-A75 operating at 2GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 core at 1. 7GHz. In the graphics area, it has an integrated GPU of Mali-G52.
Vivo has launched three variations of the Vivo S1 in India: the first one in the series with the base memory of 4 GB RAM and the built-in storage of 128 GB; the second one which comes with the RAM capacity of 6 GB RAM but has the internal storage of 64 GB; the last one with 6 GB RAM with internal storage of 128 GB. These variants are available for Rs. 17,990, Rs. 18,999 and Rs 19,990 respectively. We had the topmost variant in for review and it had nearly 100GB of storage allotment when the phone was first turned on. What the Vivo S1 is price like is that it competes directly with commanders such as the Realme X, and Oppo K3.
Final Verdict
The Vivo S1 price available at a starting price of Rs. 17,990 for the money it gives decent looks, long battery life, and reliable performance. Sadly, this is where the handset brings the price of a Realme X, OPPO K3, or even its own Vivo Z1 Pro along with a better camera and sharper sensors at the back.
This places the S1 on a very tight corner and erases the all important factor of being able to pick the phone from your local store. Thus, even though the S1 has a number of quality features, it is challenging to choose it due to the high competitive pressure in the budget segment at the moment.