In pics: Here’s a closer look at Vivo’s S1, a mid-tier phone that’s all about the design and cameras 

Vivo has launched the S1 phone in India at a starting price of Rs 17,990. Although it has plenty of competition to compete with – competition that also offers more in comparison – Vivo is banking heavily on two aspects to make the S1 phone stand out from the crowd – design and cameras.  

The S1 looks unlike anything we’ve seen in the under Rs 20,000 mid-tier segment before. Even though it’s all-plastic, Vivo has managed to make this thing striking, from every angle. Phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro may look and feel more premium, but the Vivo S1 is also not very far behind. Especially when it comes to design. 

Here’s a closer look at the Vivo S1 and everything that it brings to the table. 

-- Even though the S1 is made entirely out of plastic, Vivo is using a glossy gradient finish on this one so it looks more like glass – with a distinct depth effect - from afar. The phone will be available in two colours, Skyline Blue and Diamond Black. Both the colours offer something unique. While the Diamond Black is too flashy for its own good, the Skyline Blue is a little more subtle.  

-- The Vivo S1 comes with a 6.38-inch 1080p+ Super AMOLED display with waterdrop-style notch and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. 

-- The display is Widevine L1-certified and supports the DCI P3 wide colour gamut. There’s also an in-display fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication. 

-- The Vivo S1 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P65 processor paired with up to 6GB RAM and up to 128GB storage which is expandable by up to 256GB via a dedicated micro-SD card slot. 

-- Broadly speaking, the Vivo S1 will be available in three configurations - 4GB/128GB, 6GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB. 

-- On to the cameras, the Vivo S1 comes with triple rear cameras – a 16MP main camera with f/1.78 aperture, an 8MP wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture and another 2MP sensor for portrait photography. On the front, the S1 comes with a 32MP camera. 

-- The dual SIM phone runs Android Pie-based Funtouch OS 9. 

-- The Vivo S1 further packs a massive 4,500mAh battery and supports 18W fast charging. 

-- The Vivo S1 has been launched in India at a starting price of Rs 17,990 for the variant with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage, while the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage and 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variants of the phone will cost Rs 18,990 and Rs 19,990 respectively. The phone is now available for buying from across offline stores and online from Flipkart, Amazon India and Vivo online channels. The 6GB/128GB variant of the Vivo S1 will be available for buying starting next month. 

Photos by Saurabh Singh