Smartphone Vivo S1: advantages and disadvantages

For several years now, a popular smartphone has been one that has a pronounced cutout in the display. We owe this fashionable innovation to Apple, which surprises every time with its ideas. However, there is a limit to everything, and the cutout in the display is already rather tired, and smartphone users are waiting for something new. The first to decide on this are the developers of the Vivo brand.

Brief information

Officially, Vivo S1 is one of the first devices that can be called a full frameless smartphone.In addition, the gadget has an indecently huge screen, a front camera that can move out of the case, and a fingerprint sensor located right in the display. Such innovations are really impressive and a pleasure to watch alone. Whether the smartphone has the proper quality and reliability, we will find out in this review.

Detailed specifications

Amazing borderless screen

Vivo S1 is equipped with a really solid display that can surprise the user with its size and image quality. The display area occupies almost 92 percent of the entire front panel. Such a percentage could be called a record, but Oppo's smartphone, which appeared quite recently, unexpectedly went too far and took almost 94 percent of the entire place.

The display diagonal is very large and is 6.53 inches. Given such a large size, it may seem that the phone will not be very comfortable to hold in your hands. However, the manufacturers took care of this and made ultra-thin case frames and an interesting aspect ratio of 19.5:9. Thanks to this, the device looks unusual, but sits comfortably in the hand. It can be described as an oblong and thin smartphone with an amazing display. Although it is large, it fits comfortably in one hand.Of course, it is better to keep the second hand in the wings.

The display has a modern Full HD resolution, but in this case it is not entirely practical. The bottom line is that the display of this size does not transmit the image very well, because the Full HD format is not enough for such dimensions. Under better conditions, a 4K format would not hurt, because the picture comes out slightly muddy, without the expected clarity. However, thanks to this, energy consumption is less and this is clearly a plus.

The type of matrix in the SuperAmoled device - it has become very popular in modern flagships. The matrix manufacturer is Samsung, so all worries can be put aside.

Thanks to a reputable company, the display has high color saturation, really balanced contrast and a decent level of brightness. The brightness indicator is 450 nits, not delightful, but quite enough.

The light sensor is hidden in the device in an interesting way. Just like the proximity sensor, it sits directly above the display. Both sensors work well. In this model, the manufacturers decided not to add a notification light, but they invested something more interesting. Now the system has an Always on Display function, thanks to which the time, energy consumption and various notifications are constantly indicated on the lock screen.

The fingerprint scanner

At the initial stage of development, manufacturers wanted to install a finger scanner on the rear panel, but later moved it directly to the display. Now the device can be unlocked thanks to a light touch of the finger on the glass.

The owner recognition function in the device works relatively well. Previous Vivo models had serious problems with this.When trying to unlock, the fingerprint scanner mostly behaved strangely and did not want to recognize the owner. However, there are no such failures in this model. Finger reading speed is not too fast, but in general it works stably.

If you look at this feature without prejudice, then the best option would be to refrain from buying devices with a new scanner. As a rule, the first representatives with such an innovation will not work quite correctly, but in a year or earlier, the developers will complete the updates and stabilize the function.

Sound system

Not far from the fingerprint scanner is a speaker for conversations. It is located on the bottom of the case. To be precise, the speaker is part of the display. The developers gave the name to this innovation - Screen SoundCasting. The essence of this function is to vibrate the screen itself at certain frequencies, and thanks to this, the user hears a sound.

This method has already been tested on another smartphone - Xiaomi Mi Mix. At that time, the result did not live up to expectations, as the sound was too muffled, unintelligible and noisy. In subsequent models, manufacturers returned the usual speakers. There are no such problems with sound in this device, but still the quality cannot boast of a decent level. During a conversation, the sound is a little echoed and as if at a long distance.

With the signal speaker, things are much better. He quietly takes first place during testing for the volume level. Thanks to him, you can not worry about accidentally hearing an alarm or a sound message.

glass design

The huge advantage of the Vivo S1 smartphone is that it does not look like any similar gadget and looks like everything at once.Having carefully examined this device, you can notice with the naked eye that it is overly stylish and beautiful. The body of the device is made of armored glass, and the side faces that protect the panel are made of a strong metal alloy. On the back cover there is a main camera, which consists of two worthy modules and is located strictly vertically. This move is borrowed from the "apple company".

On the case material itself, you can see a small engraving, due to which the process of transfusion of colors takes place under the sun's rays. Given this possibility, the device looks very cool and expensive. But there are a couple of drawbacks with the glass material, and one of them is considered to be a strong “sagging” of the surface. The device has to be constantly cleaned.

Also, manufacturers have not thought through the fact that due to the retractable camera, the smartphone is too vulnerable to moisture and dust. It is possible that he will master the ingress of a small amount of liquid, but if he is dropped into a puddle, the consequences will be disastrous.

Powerful iron

Most recently, the Antutu application published a ranking of the most productive smartphones. Our client occupies places that closely border on the initial ones. It can easily compete with Xiaomi Mi 8 or xiaomi black shark. The latter is a specialized gaming machine with liquid cooling.

So, Vivo S1 functions thanks to such a powerful chipset as Snapdragon 845, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal memory. There is no special slot for a flash drive, which, in principle, does not upset. The phone has plenty of its own memory, and the slot, basically, slows down the processor a lot.Also in the gland there is support for two SIM cards.

In the gaming field, the device breaks all patterns. Such gaming mastodons as World of Tanks, War Robots and PUBG fly at maximum parameters without any hint of friezes. Games that run on the UnrealEngine can generally run without any problems, as the developers have brought a modernized gaming mode with good optimization to the device.

Unfortunately, NFC is completely absent in this device.

Operating system

The device runs under the leadership of the Android 9.1 Pie operating system, in which a special FunTouch OS 9.1 shell is installed. Thanks to her, the device works like an Android, and the interface looks like an iPhone. Of course, this is not very familiar to fans of the green robot, since the main menu is completely different and the applications are laid out in a messy style, and the settings bar appears at the bottom.

Powerful battery

Despite the fact that the device has a very powerful processor, as well as a demanding display, the battery in the device copes with its tasks calmly. Its capacity is 4000 mAh. The battery in the smartphone lasts for several days in normal use, including conversations, SMS correspondence, surfing the Internet and watching videos. During running powerful games, the charge is enough for 6-7 hours of work. Such an indicator inspires confidence, all the more it is worth considering the maximum settings in applications.

The smartphone has support for fast charging at the level of QuickCharge 3.1. The phone comes with a 23W charger.

The battery charges quite quickly, for example, from 0 to 50 percent the device will charge in a quarter of an hour, and to 100 percent in an hour and a half.

Quality cameras

The installed camera in the device comes from the manufacturer Sony and has a module with a resolution of 12 MP, as well as an impressive pixel level of 1.4 microns. The arsenal of functions includes light optics with an aperture of f / 1.8 and an optical stabilization system that works in several axes.

The next module with a resolution of 5 MP is needed to calculate the depth of images. Thanks to him, portrait photos are softer. In general, the picture looks high quality, but the camera does not bring anything new.

As for the very quality of photos, the camera adequately performs its functions. Daytime shots are excellent, noise is almost non-existent even in low light, and focusing works flawlessly. One disadvantage of the camera is considered excessively slow motion. The problem is that the pause between shots reaches several seconds. It's long enough. Also strange is the functioning of HDR, which works intermittently.

As for stabilization by optics, things are a bit tight. Given its unbalanced work, the image during photography is too twitchy.

Video recording is done in 4K format at a speed of 30 frames per second, 60 frames, unfortunately, the system does not support.

Front camera features

The front camera is very interesting here. To maintain the frameless display, the developers resorted to a completely new idea. The fact is that earlier on Xiaomi Mi Mix smartphones, in order to achieve framelessness, the front camera was installed under the bottom panel of the case. This is very stupid and inconvenient.Vivo manufacturers decided to make a knight's move and built the camera into a retractable mechanism, which is located in the case itself.

Before using the front camera, it gracefully leaves the top of the device to an entertaining soundtrack.

The developers stated that this mechanism is designed for long-term operation, so you don’t have to worry about the service life. This mechanism is under reliable protection, which blunts blows against the camera thanks to a strong spring. If suddenly the application of the mechanism freezes, then the camera can be pushed in with your finger.

In such a mechanism, there are enough of their jambs, for example, frequent hanging of the spring or periodically a very nasty sound, dust getting under the mechanism, etc. Due to the constant dust, you will often need to wipe the lens. The most terrible drawback of the mechanism is the wear of the case from the inside.

As for the very quality of photos taken with the front camera, it is mediocre here. The resolution of the module is 8 MP, and it will not be able to please much. Pictures are not sharp enough, with poor detail at night. The HDR mode turned out to be good in the front camera, as well as a rather pleasant blur that softens the pictures.

In general, it is worth noting that the cameras are well made. They do not reach the level of some flagships, but as for a frameless smartphone with a bunch of innovations, everything looks cool.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Huge frameless display;
• Great pictures taken with the main camera;
• Impressive performance;
• The presence of several SIM cards;
• Capacious battery;
• Has fast charging
• Having a large amount of memory.

• Poor stabilization during video shooting;
• Extra shell Funtouch;
• Slow sensor for scanning fingers;
• Too loud speaker for conversations;
• No wireless charging module;
• There is no special protection of the camera extension mechanism from liquid and dust.

Conclusion

First of all, I would like to note the uniqueness of the appearance of this device. Many users are already tired of smartphones with coarse eyebrows, thick bezels and front cameras that take up a lot of space. This time, Vivo's manufacturers have taken a step forward and set the bar high.

However, not everything is so smooth with the very functionality of such innovations. The fact is that the extension mechanism is not equipped with protection against moisture and dust, and the speaker does not always behave properly. The fingerprint sensor is a little slow, but in this case, you can refer to a poorly designed scanner system. With all new technologies, this is almost always the case. It is also sad that a wireless charging module was not added to the kit with the device. For such a complete set, they demand a modest price, only $ 350. Let there be flaws, but such a cost immediately helps to forget about them. Do not forget about the advantages of the device.

The device has just a great display, with a huge diagonal and decent image quality, a decent main camera, a powerful processor and a lot of memory. Especially this creation will delight fans of the gaming industry. In games, the system functions at the highest level.

In general, it turns out an excellent smartphone, which you can boast of with friends, and with which you will not be ashamed to go out in public.Reliability, performance, power and long battery life, all this is present in the new smartphone.