With the number of line-ups Vivo has in their smartphones, they could easily become a car maker company too. In such models, the Style meant S series has a new device in the category, the Vivo S1 Pro. With top-notch AMOLED display, quad-lens rear camera setup and decent performance, the device looks great in terms of design. After being able to use it for a good amount of time, here is the Vivo S1 Pro Review.
Design and Display
The Vivo S1 Pro has a huge 6.38-inch display upfront with smooth rounded corners. You get a good hold of the device and gives that premium feeling upon holding. On the front, above the display is the earpiece inside the teardrop notch along with the selfie camera and the sensors, an in-display fingerprint sensor and a thick chin at the bottom for the comfy holding of the device. On the back, with the laminated plastic design, it has the quad-lens camera set up in a unique rhombus-shaped module and the LED flashlight just below the module. Parallel to the module is the Vivo branding at the bottom.
The right panel has the power button along with the volume rockers and on the left panel, we have the SIM card tray which is a hybrid slot. On the top panel, we have the secondary noise cancellation mic along with the 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom is the USB Type-C port along with the speaker and microphone.
The Vivo S1 Pro sports a 6.38-inch AMOLED FHD+ display and it is bright with the color reproduction on the warmer side. With the AMOLED display, you have your perks as saving battery, always-on display with different styles of clocks. Apart from that, it has got some filters such as blue-light filter while reading or in dark scenarios. The build quality and protection are also good enough and the device feels sturdy enough. Overall, the display is a good get for a device of this price.
Software and Performance
The Vivo S1 Pro runs on Android 9.0 with Funtouch OS 9.2 on top of it, out of the box. With the Android security patch for December 2019, Vivo does try to keep up in the updates race but we still can’t be sure about the Android 10 update for either of their devices. With iPhone like gestures, it has its customization options in the settings you can check out. Apart from the Google Apps, the device has some pre-installed apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Gaana, UC Browser, Amazon, Dailyhunt, PhonePe, and Paytm which can be uninstalled if not necessary.
Out in the performance section, the Vivo S1 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 665 SoC coupled with 8GB of RAM. This combined with AMOLED display and the multi-tasking capability builds up the performance unit of this device. On a day to day life, you will be satisfied with the performance as we did tests with multiple apps running in the background and still multi-tasking, and the device did not disappoint much.
On the gaming side too, we did carry out the ritual of playing PUBG Mobile and have to say that the device was struggling a bit even in the lowest graphic settings. With multiple apps running and still playing intensive games, the performance did backlash a bit with certain frame drops. The single speaker on the bottom is loud enough but considering you want to game harder, you gotta have some earphones handy.
Cameras: Vivo S1 Pro Review
The Vivo S1 Pro has a 48MP primary rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, 8MP 120-degree wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture along with a 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it has a 32MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture. The stock camera app has a simple UI with toggles for flash, HDR, Portrait mode, and live photos on the top bar. In the settings, you have various settings you can modify and on the usual screen, you can find the option to switch between camera modes that include DOC to scan documents, Pro mode with manual settings to adjust exposure, ISO, shutter speed, panorama, night mode, AR stickers, and more.
Out from the rear camera, the images come out decently great through the primary sensor. The daylight shots are great and it has the auto HDR which will turn on HDR mode based on the scene you are taking a photo in. Macro shots are good up to an extent with a decent amount of blur in the background. The 8MP wide-angle lens on the other side does not give out the good quality of photos. The photos taken with the wide-angle lens give a good view but lack of colors and details.
When in lowlight conditions, the images come out low in detail and with more noise. However, with the night mode coming to the rescue, the images are better than that of what we have seen in other Vivo devices. The portrait mode though, with the 2MP depth sensor, could have done better with the edge detection, at least, that’s what we think.
The 32MP selfie camera does produce good quality selfies with sharp details. For the portraits, it uses software to blur the background which is decent enough. Apart from that, the front camera also has HDR and AI beautifications through which people can up their selfie game. Check out the camera samples below.
Battery and Miscellaneous
The Vivo S1 Pro houses a 4500mAh battery which will last a day or so picking out from the numbers. In our tests too, the device did last us a day with most of the usage coming from browsing, social media, gaming, YouTube & other streaming, and calls. Along with the power saving mode, there is also a Super Power saving mode which just enables contacts, phone, messages, and clock.
Out of the box, the device comes with an 18W Dual-Engine fast charging adapter, it takes up to 90 minutes to fully charge from 0 to 100%. Also, it supports reverse charging through which you can charge other devices with the USB OTG cable. Considering how Vivo is fond of Micro USB ports, it seems like they have finally made a move forward here.
Coming to the other fields of interest, the speakers are loud enough to be heard in a medium-sized room and the audio through the earphones is also defined well. The device also supports Widevine L1 which means you can stream video content at HD in streaming services. Apart from that, the connectivity levels are great with VoLTE dual SIM and Bluetooth 5.0.
Verdict: Vivo S1 Pro Review
Priced starting at Rs. 17798, for the offerings that it has, the Vivo Z1x strives to be the best device in the mid-range segment. With an AMOLED display, in-display fingerprint sensor, 48MP primary sensor, average gaming performance, and a 4500 mAh battery along with 18W fast charging support, the Vivo S1 Pro is a good bet for the people seeking a decent device in the mid-range segment. If you want a good experience in terms of UI, you would not want to have this device, but rather go with a stock Android device.
Pros
- AMOLED display
- 48MP rear primary camera sensor
- Humongous 4500 Battery with 18W fast charging
Cons
- Funtouch OS lacks smoothness
- Wide-angle lens camera not up to the mark
