Smartphone Vivo S1: advantages and disadvantages

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

Brief information

Officially, the Vivo S1 is one of the first devices to be called a full bezel-less smartphone. In addition, the gadget has an obscenely huge screen, a front camera that can slide out of the case, and a finger scanning sensor located right in the display. These innovations are truly impressive and a pleasure to watch. Whether the smartphone has the proper quality and reliability, we will find out in this review.

Detailed specifications

Amazing bezel-less screen

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

The diagonal of the display is very large and is 6.53 inches. Considering 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 body 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. It may be large, but it fits comfortably in one hand. Of course, it's better to keep your other hand in the grip.

The display has a modern Full HD resolution, but in this case it is not entirely practical. The bottom line is that a display of this size does not convey the image very well, because the Full HD format is not enough for such dimensions. Under the best conditions, the 4K format would not hurt, because the picture comes out slightly hazy, without the expected clarity. However, thanks to this, energy consumption is consumed 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 offers high color saturation, truly balanced contrast and decent brightness levels. The brightness index is 450 nits, not a delight, but quite enough.

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

The fingerprint scanner

In the early stages of development, manufacturers wanted to install a finger scanner on the back, but later moved it directly to the display. The device can now be unlocked by lightly touching the glass with your finger.

The owner recognition function in the device works relatively well. Previous Vivo models had serious problems with this. When trying to unlock the fingerprint, it mostly behaved strangely and did not want to recognize the owner. However, there are no such failures in this model. The swiping speed of the finger is not very fast, but overall it is stable.

If you look at this feature without bias, 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 finish the updates and stabilize the function.

Sound system

Not far from the finger 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 the 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 echoes slightly and seems to be at a distance.

The signal speaker is much better. It quietly takes the first place during the volume test. Thanks to him, you do not have to worry about not accidentally hearing an alarm clock or a sound message.

Glass design

The huge advantage of the Vivo S1 smartphone is that it doesn't look like any other gadget and looks like everything at once. Having examined this device carefully, 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 edges that protect the panel are made of a strong metal alloy. The back cover has the main camera, which consists of two decent modules and is located strictly vertically. This move was borrowed from the "apple company".

On the case material itself, you can notice a small engraving, thanks to which the process of transfusion of flowers takes place under the sun's rays. Considering this possibility, the device looks very cool and expensive. But there are a couple of drawbacks with glass material, and one of them is a strong "slap" of the surface. The device has to be constantly cleaned.

Also, the manufacturers did not consider the fact that, due to the retractable camera, the smartphone is too vulnerable to moisture and dust. Perhaps he will master the ingress of a small amount of liquid, but if you drop it into a puddle, the consequences will be dire.

Powerful iron

Most recently, the Antutu application has published a ranking of the most productive smartphones.Our client occupies places close to the initial ones. He can easily compete with the Xiaomi Mi 8 or Xiaomi black shark... The latter is a specialized liquid-cooled gaming machine.

So, the Vivo S1 is powered by a powerful chipset like the Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. There is no special slot for a flash drive, which, in principle, is not upsetting. The phone has enough of its own memory, and the slot, in general, greatly slows down the processor. Also, the hardware has support for two SIM cards.

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

Unfortunately, this device is completely missing NFC.

operating system

The device is powered by the Android 9.1 Pie operating system with a special FunTouch OS 9.1 shell 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 arranged 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 lasts for 6-7 hours. Such an indicator inspires confidence, the more you should take into account 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 charging adapter.

The battery charges quite quickly, for example, from 0 to 50 percent, the device will be charged in a quarter of an hour, and 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. In the arsenal of functions there are 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 required to calculate the depth of images. Thanks to him, portrait photos are softer. In general, the picture looks good, but the camera does not bring anything new.

As for the quality of photos itself, the camera fulfills its functions with dignity. Pictures are great in the daytime, there is virtually no noise even in low light, and focusing works flawlessly. One disadvantage of the camera is considered to be excessively slow motion. The problem is that the pause between shots reaches several seconds. It's long enough. Also, HDR works strangely, which is triggered periodically.

With regard to stabilization by optics, things are a little tight. Considering its unbalanced performance, the image jerks too much during photography.

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

Front camera features

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

Before using the front camera, it gracefully slides out of 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 dulls shocks against the camera thanks to a strong spring. If the application of the mechanism suddenly freezes, then the camera can be pushed in with your finger.

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

As for the quality of the photos taken with the front camera, it is mediocre. The module has a resolution of 8 MP, and it cannot please much. The 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, which softens the pictures.

In general, it's 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 bezel-less display;
• Great pictures taken with the main camera;
• Impressive performance;
• The presence of several SIM cards;
• Capacious battery;
• There is fast charging;
• The presence of a large amount of memory.

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

Output

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

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

The device has an excellent display, with a huge diagonal and decent image quality, a decent main camera, a powerful processor and a lot of memory. This creation will especially 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 a friend, and with which you will not be ashamed to go out to people. Reliability, performance, power and long autonomy, all this is present in the new smartphone.