vivo S1 hands-on review

Vivo just announced its Y7s smartphone for India with a different name - vivo S1. Way more manageable to be honest. But we are not here to talk about the different aliases of the phone. Instead, we will take a closer look at the device in person and see what's all about.

The vivo S1 is a mid-range phone with some 2019 features. An improved MediaTek Helio P65 chipset sits behind the wheel based on the 12nm manufacturing process and it's paired with either 4 or 6GB of RAM depending on the configuration you choose. Internal storage is always 128GB, though, which is pretty generous, especially considering the fact that it has a microSD card slot as well.

The screen is fairly big - 6.38" with a tiny waterdrop-styled notch on the top. It's not obtrusive at all and doesn't get in the way of content all that much. More importantly, the handset features a Super AMOLED panel with 1080 x 2340px resolution supporting the Always-on feature. There's also an optic fingerprint reader sitting beneath the panel and for the short time we've spent with the device, we can say it's pretty fast. Of course, it's not flagship-grade fast, but it does the job surprisingly well considering the price point.

Camera-wise, the device comes equipped with a capable 16MP main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. The latter can be used for video recording as well and the third 2MP unit is used only for depth sensing. A 32MP unit sits on the notch for selfies and video calls.

We had the chance to take a few samples to see how the two cameras on the back perform during the day. Of course, more in-depth analysis is required to assess the picture quality fully and we will do that once we have the chance for a full review.

Samples with the main 16MP camera

Samples with the ultra-wide 8MP camera

The hardware is powered by a generous 4,500 mAh battery supporting decently fast 18W charging speeds, but the sad news is that it charges over microUSB. We really thought the days of microUSB connectors are over. It's one thing to launch a device in 2016 or 2017 with microUSB, but mid-2019?

Software-wise, there are no surprises. The phone runs on Android 9.0 Pie with vivo's own Funtouch OS 9 on top. Here are a couple of screenshots for you to see.

Funtouch OS 9 UI

The vivo S1 looks pretty sleek, that's for sure but has one big downside - the back attracts fingerprints and dust. It requires frequent cleaning. Fingerprints are easy to spot on the Diamond Black paint job we've handled.

The ergonomics also need improvements. Although very light for a 6.38-inch device, the vivo S1 would have greatly benefited from slightly curvier back so it can lie comfortably in the hand and provide a much safer grip.

The retail package is pretty standard - you get a charging brick capped at 18W, USB-A to microUSB cable for charging and data transfer, a pair of in-ear headphones and a transparent silicone case.

As of now, you can only find the 4GB/128GB configuration in stores so if you need the 6GB/128GB for future-proofing, you will have to wait until next month. The price for the standard 4GB model in India is INR 17,990, which is one of the lowest prices on smartphones with AMOLED panel and under-display fingerprint reader. It's still too early to judge, though, so a full review is needed to see how the phone performs in our extensive tests.