The Lenovo Vibe S1 smartphone priced at Rs 15,999 is the company’s latest offering in the mid-range segment. It has everything a good mid-range handset should have, from great specifications to a dual-camera setup at the front. Let’s take a closer look at the Lenovo Vibe S1.
Look and design
While many mid-range smartphones do not have much aesthetic appeal, the Vibe S1 manages to make its mark. It has a metal frame. The phone is available in blue and white colors. We got the blue colored handset for review and we liked its look.
Vibe S1 comes with a curved back, due to which it looks slimmer at the edges. The layout is typical. Power and volume buttons are on the right side. USB port and speaker grille are at the bottom. SIM tray is on the left side and audio socket is on the top.
The phone has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and back panel. Like OnePlus X, its rear part is also reflective and you will like it. Lenovo has not tampered much with the design profile. It has not tried to do anything that hurts the eyes.
The front panel is also very clean. There is no logo. Only three capacitive buttons are visible on it which are not backlit. This is a big drawback of its design. The screen occupies 68 percent of the front panel, above it on the right side there are dual-front cameras. In the dual-camera setup, the primary sensor is 8 megapixels and the depth-sensing sensor is 2 megapixels.
The Lenovo Vibe S1 sports a 5-inch full-HD IPS LCD panel with a pixel density of 441 ppi. The screen has good detailing. However, it is not as vibrant and capable as the OnePlus X’s screen. Still, it is one of the best full-HD screens we have used. It is also extremely bright, so using the handset in sunlight is a breeze. Watching movies and videos on the Vibe S1 is a pleasant experience.
Specifications and software
Despite being a mid-range device, the Vibe S1 is great in the specifications department. It has a 1.7 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6752 chipset, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB inbuilt storage, microSD card support (up to 128 GB), 2420 mAh battery and 4G LTE support. Due to the hybrid SIM slot, you will be able to use either the second SIM or a microSD card. Fast-charging, NFC and gyroscope sensor are not present in the handset.
The Vibe S1 handset runs on Android 5.0 with the company’s Vibe UI on top. This is a single layer user interface. It looks a bit similar to Android UI. There are some drawbacks in it. You will not be able to remove many pre-installed apps. The interface does not look great, but there is a lot of improvement in performance. Now the interface does not use most of the handset’s resources like before. Apart from this, the user gets many controls.
The Secure Zone feature lets you create a dedicated zone for trusted apps. The user interface is well responsive and most apps and games run smoothly without any issues.
Camera
Lenovo Vibe S1 has a 13-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone LED flash. It has a dual-camera setup on the front. The primary front camera is 8 megapixels and is accompanied by a 2-megapixel sensor that determines depth-of-field. You will be able to record videos in full-HD resolution with both the front and rear cameras. With the front camera, you can create unique photo effects using the depth-of-field capability. The camera app is excellent. There are many controls and features. This includes manual settings. You can control the resolution in photos and videos. HDR mode, flash and camera switcher can be easily accessed. Video recording is a one-step process. You also get a panorama mode. Switching to the front camera will give you the option to activate dual-camera mode. Video recording is not possible in dual camera mode. You will be able to see the dual-camera effect only in the gallery.
The dual-camera effects are pretty simple, but interesting. Depth of field allows the camera to determine the foreground and background, allowing the camera to better determine which part of the selfie you are in. You can use it to blur the background or cut it out and use a new image. You can also superimpose graphics on the background or even insert an old image. This way you can take some interesting selfies with the camera. Selfie lovers will definitely love this feature.
The 13-megapixel rear camera also performs well. It is fully capable of taking crisp and accurate shots. You will be able to take pictures in all lightning conditions. Photos taken in suitable lighting are of good quality, especially in terms of color and lightning reproduction. The crispness of the picture remains intact when zoomed in. The front camera does a good job in terms of detail and accuracy, but the absence of a flash may disappoint many buyers.
Performance
In general use, the Lenovo Vibe S1 is a solid performer, thanks to the improvements in the user interface. The MediaTek MT6752 chipset ensures that the phone performs quickly, especially in graphics-intensive tasks. Games and videos run smoothly. However, the device did face heating issues when playing intensive games.
Talking about benchmark results, this phone gave better results than other smartphones equipped with MT6752 chipset. The score is very similar to OnePlus X. It is clear that the company has made improvements in terms of performance.
Lenovo Vibe S1 is a good and efficient handset. Call quality is good. Connectivity to 3G and 4G networks is also considered good. The sound quality from the single speaker is a little low, but there is no such problem with headphones. In the video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted for 8 hours and 15 minutes. Even after normal use, we had to connect the phone to the charger by evening.
Our verdict
As far as looks are concerned, Lenovo Vibe S1 gives a tough competition to handsets costing twice as much. Vibe S1 is very sleek and beautiful. And quality has also been taken care of while making it. Its screen is good. Performance is excellent and it is equipped with a great camera which will be liked by many selfie lovers.
However, the handset does have a few shortcomings. The capacitive buttons are not backlit. The UI is not very pleasing to the eyes. The hybrid SIM slot forces you to choose between dual-SIM connectivity and a microSD card. And the battery life is average. Nevertheless, the Lenovo Vibe S1 is a capable smartphone that will appeal to camera and selfie enthusiasts. It will also appeal to those who value style.
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