vivo is a new player in the Australian market. Its first phone here, the vivo S1, is available from JB Hi-Fi for $449. It is value-packed and gets GadgetGuy’s recommendation.
Before you ask what the hell is a vivo S1 and why should we care let me tell you that it is part of the BBK stable including OPPO, OnePlus and realme.
vivo is huge in China where the vivo S1 is extremely popular with the proletariat. It had to work hard to get there by packing in more features and reliability than most competitors to meet the price point. vivo can do that because the combined output of BBK either makes it the second or third largest smartphone maker on the planet – economy of scale.
It is very well specified but its paddling in the hugely competitive mass-market field where is competes with: Huawei P30 Lite ($449); OPPO Reno Z ($499 yes the same parents), Samsung Galaxy A50 ($499), Motorola One Vision ($499), Xiaomi M1 A3 ($499). PS: these are genuine Australian certified models and not the cheap grey/parallel imports you can find on-line.
Review format change
Over 60% of GadgetGuy’s traffic is now via mobile, and our traditional long-form (4-6-page) reviews don’t suit that. We now look at the buyer profile and what they expect for the price. The result – we will put everything you need to know in the first two pages. You will see the word ‘Pass’ if it meets or exceeds our extensive paradigms.
Don’t worry – for more expensive flagship and beyond purchases we will appendix any heavy tech stuff and specifications.
vivo S1 Model 1907_AU, dual sim unlocked, 6/128GB
Website here
Market position: vivo is a worker’s phone for those who expect a lot more.
As vivo may be unknown to Aussies you can count on its BBK/OPPO heritage – it is well made, quality assured and has local support. The other model sold here is the $369 vivo Y17 that we are yet to review.
Let’s start with some basic vivo S1 features:
- 6.38-inch, 2340 x 1080, 404ppi, Super AMOLED screen
- MediaTek MT6768 Helio P65 (12nm) Mali-G52 MP2
- 6GB RAM and 128GB storage (105GB free) plus dedicated microSD slot to 256GB
- Dual sim, Wi-Fi AC, BT 5.0, GPS
- Tripe rear camera (16/8/2MP) and 32MP selfie and lots of AI
- Under glass fingerprint scanner
- Android 9 and Funtouch OS 9 UI
- 4500mAh battery and fast charge 5V/2A and 9V/2A (18W) support
- 159.5 x 75.2 x 8.1 mm x 197g
Let’s just say that for a $449 device this ticks all boxes for phones costing far more. Comparing it to the $499 OPPO Reno Z it has similar specs. On the plus side it has a MicroSD slot and bigger battery and on the minus side – the cameras are quite different, and it has micro-USB (we think all phones should have USB-C now, but the Chinese worker still wants the former)
Screen: 6.38-inch Super AMOLED
We understand it is a Samsung sourced Super AMOLED panel widely used by the BBK family.
It is bright (at least 550 typical and 600 peak nits). Screen protection is Gorilla Glass (we suspect level 5).
It is rare to see AMOLED with Always on Display in this price bracket. The
Pass – excellent screen with good daylight readability
Under the hood MediaTek MT6768 Helio P65
This is a new chip, and vivo is the first to use it. It uses two big 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 and six small 1.7 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. Our 15-minute CPU Throttle test shows flat-out consistent performance at 117,000GIPS and proper heat management.
GeekBench 5 shows a respectable 305/1308 single/multi-core performance (multiply by 5 to get GeekBench 4 figures), and that puts it pretty close to the Kirin 960 (Huawei P10) or Qualcomm SD835 (Note 8 and Pixel 2).
Pass – CPU, ram and storage – 6GB and 128GB plus a dedicated microSD means it ticks all the boxes.
As a phone
It scores very well on signal strength reception at -89dBM (Note10+ is -100 – lower is better) and picks up the second nearest tower at -93 (Note 10 is -110). It has bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8,28, 38, 39, 40 and 41 – perfect for Australia.
Volume is excellent for ring and hands-free. Music is listenable – better over the 3.5mm jack or BT 5.0
Pass – with flying colours
Comms – Wi-Fi and GPS (no NFC)
Its Wi-Fi AC and has good sensitivity at -52 (Note10 is -46). It achieves 390Mbps out to 5 metres.
GPS is capable of turn-by-turn navigation, and it has an eCompass.
Pass – would have loved NFC but its hard at this price.
Android 9 and Funtouch 9
The Chinese need a User Interface because Google apps and services are banned there. Funtouch 9 is a little quirky compared to its brother OPPO’s Colour OS 9.
You need to swipe to get a shortcut (other Android you swipe down), and there are things Jovi, Ultra Game Mode, Smart motion/split and more. It is Android 9 underneath (no mention of its upgrade policy) with a September security patch.
As far as I can tell, Jovi is a voice assistant, and you can use Google Assistant instead.
Pass – small learning curve but its still Android 9
Battery 4500mAh battery and fast charge 5V/2A and 9V/2A (18W) support
4500mAH is huge, and in two days of heavy use, it still had 30% left. At 100% load, it exhausts in seven hours but playing a 720p video gets that to 19 hours.
Micro-USB is so yesterday, but the supplied charger can intelligently charge at 5V/2A (10W) or 9V/2A (18W).
Pass – excellent battery life and fast charge (don’t lose the charger)
Camera
- Primary sensor: 16MP, f/1.78, 1.12um, Sony IMX499 (mainly used by vivo), PDAF,
- Ultrawide sensor: 8MP, f/2.2, 120-degree FoV
- Depth sensor: 2MP, f/2.4
- Front camera: 32MP, f/2.0, .8um (likely a Sony IMX616 as used in OPPO Reno Z) and with pixel binning for 8MP image
Outdoors
Accurate colours, good contrast, good detail and no over-processing
Office Light (600 lumens)
Accurate colours, good contrast, good detail and no over-processing
Indoors (darkened)
It lights the room courtesy of the f/1.78 aperture but the colours are artificial (the Windows screen is
Pass – the camera is strong shows a balanced sensor/lens setup. The Selfie at 32MP has all the usual beauty features.
GadgetGuy’s take – the vivo S1 is a strong mass-market device with an excellent BBK pedigree.
There is a lot to like and little to complain about this phone. Solid, well-made and offering features (particularly the battery and selfie camera) that make it excellent value.
Funtouch 9 is a little different at first and reflects its home market.
In the beginning, I said it was a crowded category. Would I spend $50 more and get the OPPO Reno Z, Moto One Vision or Samsung Galaxy A50?
The answer is in two parts – if $449 is your budget you are buying the best value phone. It scores 5-out-of-5 for that price.
If you have $50 more, the OPPO Reno Z is very enticing with NFC and a 48MP rear camera. Then it scores 4.7-out-of-5.
