Reviews

Lenovo Vibe S1 – Beauty with brains – Review

Lenovo is one of the most active mobile manufactures in the Indian market. They got our attention with the Lenovo A6000 and ever since, Lenovo has been consistently introducing new mobiles in India. While the A series are entry level mobiles which are price conscious, the Vibe series are predominantly design conscious. After the likes of Vibe Pro, Vibe Shot and Vibe P1, Lenovo has introduced the Vibe S1. The Vibe S1 was announced in the IFA earlier this year and since then I have been longing to get my hands on it. The Vibe S1 is priced at Rs 15999 and is available exclusively on Amazon India. It is available in Dark Blue and White colors. We got the White variant for review and here are my thoughts on the Vibe S1.

Design

Just like the other Vibe devices, the Vibe S1 is also design centric. One look at the device and you would realize the amount of efforts Lenovo has put into the design of this mobile. It has a curved glass back which seamless meets the metal rim running along the edges. The metal rim is aluminium alloy and the glass is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. Both the Blue and White variants of the S1 are made of glass. The S1 is slippery to hold in hand and also it is slippery against any material like leather or fabric or plastic. A slippery beautiful device needs protection and Lenovo has bundled in a good quality clear back cover along with the box. While the back case is still slippery, it offers some amount of first level protection on impact. The blue variant is a finger print magnet while the smudges are not visible on the White variant. The speaker grills are the bottom are dual, but the S1 has mono speaker and the other grill is for aesthetic balance and it conceals the mic. The off screen menu keys are not back lit and the S1 does not have any notification LED. The metal buttons on the right have good tactile feedback and they are easy to reach and operate. The SIM tray goes into a slot on the left. It can take in dual 4G SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card.

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The Vibe S1 is definitely an aesthetically pleasing device. White is my personal favorite. It has a solid construction and the device feels premium, though it is priced as mid range smartphone.

Display

The front of the mobile does not look as elegant at the curved rear. The 5 inch display on the front packs a 441 ppi of pixels on a screen that supports Full HD 1024 resolution. The display is IPS LCD and has decent viewing angles. However the color and brightness are not up to the mark. It has decent readability under direct sunlight. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and it seamlessly merges with the metal rim and has elegant curves. The UI and images rendered on the screen are sharp and they don’t apear over saturated. It has good contrast levels for better multimedia viewing experience. The screen saturation and white balance can be adjusted under display setting color balance option. Overall, the S1 has a decent display, if not brilliant.

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Hardware and Performance

The Vibe S1 is not just a pretty phone, it also performs pretty well. It is powered by a octa core MediaTek processor clocked at 1.7 GHz with a Mali T760MP2 GPU. It has 3 GB of RAM and and 32 GB of internal storage. The storage is also expandable using microSD card on its hybrid SIM tray. It also supports USB OTG. The Vibe S1 scores impressive scores on benchmark tests and it lives up to its scores in real life as well. It handles most graphically intensive games with ease, but occasionally I did not a few frame drops, but there was no screen lag. After playing games for a prolonged period, the device did get warm upto 38 degree Celsius and its within acceptable levels. It also handles the UI with ease. The UI showed no signs of lag and it was very responsive to use. To sum up, this mid range mobile’s performance is above average. You can check the benchmark test scores under the specs section.

Lenovo VIBE S1

Lenovo Vibe S1 – Beauty with brains – Review
Brand: Lenovo
Category: Mobiles
  • CPU:
  • RAM:
  • Storage:
  • Display:
  • Camera:
  • OS:

0
  • Design 1 / 10
  • Performance 1 / 10
  • Display 1 / 10
  • Battery 1 / 10
  • Call Quality 1 / 10

Details Get Attention

The VIBE S1 is the ultimate showstopper. That’s because, the front Gorilla Glass 3 disperses reflections in such a manner that the images will always appear softer and richer. While an 8 -step engineering process has gone into creating the VIBE S1’s impeccable curved-glass, rear-panel and premium rounded metal frame. At just 131 grams, this sleek smartphone also feels as light as a feather.

Powerhouse Of Performance

The VIBE S1 has a 64-Bit 1.7 Ghz Octa-Core processor, 400Mhz Mali GPU, 3GB RAM, that makes it ideal even for high-end games.

First-Of-Its-Kind With Twice The Fun

The Lenovo VIBE S1 smartphone makes you the center of attention. It’s the world’s first Dual selfie camera with not 1, but 2 selfie cameras to focus on you. An 8MP F2.2 camera with BSI sensor to give you superb, crisp image quality and a 2MP camera to analyze depth of field. This gives you unprecedented creative options, including One-touch Refocus and Background Swap. What’s more, its multiple shooting modes give you maximum flexibility, gesture & voice controls let you steady your hand, and anti-distortion components balance selfies perfectly.

You can also capture sensational images in low light with the 13 megapixel F2.2 rear camera that has a low-light BSI sensor and phase detection autofocus (PDAF), which dramatically increases focusing speeds.

Visual Brilliance

The VIBE S1 features a 12.7cm (5) Full HD display at 440ppi, so you can see all your photos and videos clearly even under bright sunlight.

Store More

With a memory of 2GB and 32GB of storage space, expandable by another 128GB with a microSD card – you will always have space for your photos, music, games, and videos.

Android™ 5.0 Lollipop

The Android™ Lollipop operating system with VIBE UI includes a host of new features, a visual overhaul and numerous under-the-hood improvements to make it faster, more efficient and lighter on your battery. It also works perfectly with all your favorite Google apps.

Lenovo Doit Apps

Do more with your S1 through preloaded apps like SHAREit, which lets you rapidly share files wirelessly across smartphones and PCs, without network charges or a WiFi connection; and SYNCit, lets you back up your files and restore contacts, SMS messages and call logs.

Specs

General

Announced 01 September, 2015
Status Available

Display

Display Type <strong>Display Technology => </strong> A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) IPS LCD
Size 5.0
Resolution 1080 x 1920
Pixel Density <strong>Pixel Density (PPI)</strong> is refers to the concentration of pixels on a particular display, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Pixel density is calculated by dividing the diagonal pixel resolution of a display by its diagonal size, higher pixel density better display quality. 440 ppi
Display Protection <strong>Display Protection => </strong> Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind. Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Secondary Display No

Hardware

Chipset <strong>Chipset</strong> is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. MediaTek MT6752
CPU <strong>CPU</strong> (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. 1.7 GHz Octa-Core
GPU <strong>GPU</strong> (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. Mali-T760
RAM (Memory) <strong>RAM</strong> (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. 3GB
Internal Storage <strong>Internal Storage</strong> is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. 32GB
Card Slot <strong>Memory Card Slot</strong> is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras. Yes, Up to 128GB
Sensors <strong>Sensors</strong> are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device. Gravitation, Proximity, Light

Battery

Battery Type <strong>Battery Type => </strong> Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. Li-Poly (Lithium Polymer)
Capacity <strong>Battery Capacity</strong> is a measure (typically in Amp-hr) of the charge stored by the battery, and is determined by the mass of active material contained in the battery. The battery capacity represents the maximum amount of energy that can be extracted from the battery under certain conditions. 2420 mAh
Standby <strong>Standby Time</strong> is the total amount of time that you can leave your is fully charged, turned on and ready to send and receive calls or data transmissions before completely discharging the battery. Up to 10 days
Talk Time <strong>Talk Time</strong> is the longest time that a single battery charge will last when you are constantly talking on the phone under perfect conditions, Ambient temperature and highly dependent on the cellular network environment such as the distance to the closest cell network tower. Up to 12 hours
Fast Charging No

Camera

Primary <strong>Camera</strong> is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. 13mp
Camera Features Phase Detection Auto Focus
Secondary 8MP primary with BSI sensor, 2MP secondary
Flash <strong>Flash Light => </strong> There is commonly two types of flash lights are used in camera mobile phones, LED Flash (LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up very little room, LEDs can be strobed faster than any other light source), Xenon Flash (xenon flash produces an extremely intense full-spectrum white light for a very short duration) dual LED

Design

Type <strong>Design Type</strong> called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. Bar
Dimensions 70.8 x 7.8 x 143.3
Weight 132g
Protection Aluminum Frame
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 front and rear
Colors White, Blue

Network

SIM <strong>SIM</strong> (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. Nano SIM
Dual SIM Yes
2G Network GSM 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1800 MHz / 1900 MHz
3G Network 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1900 MHz / 2100 MHz
4G Network FDD Band1/3/5/7/8/20; TDD Band 40

Software

Operating System <strong>OS => </strong> Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. Android 5.0
User Interface <strong>UI</strong> or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface. Vibe UI

Connectivity

Bluetooth <strong>Bluetooth</strong> is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices. v4.1
Infrared <strong>Infrared</strong> connectivity is an old wireless technology used to connect two electronic devices. It uses a beam of infrared light to transmit information and so requires direct line of sight and operates only at close range.
Wi-fi <strong>Wi-Fi</strong> is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world. 802.11b/g/n/ac
USB v2.0
GPS <strong>GPS</strong> The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky. Yes
NFC <strong>NFC</strong> (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches.

Benchmarks

3D Mark Gamers Benchmark 310
Antutu 45650
Basemark OS 2 967
Basemark X 13887
Charging Time 1 hour 56 min
Discharge Time 1 day 4 hours
Geekbench 3 Multicore 4135
Geekbench 3 Single Core 811
GPU Benchmark 19905
Nenamark 2.4 59.6
Quadrant 15298
Velamo Browser 2187
Velamo Metal 1071
Velamo Multicore 1417

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Camera

Next to design, the front facing camera capability of the Vibe S1 is its highlight. It has two camera modules on the front. A 8 MP sensor that captures the image while the 2 MP sensor gets the depth information. Image grom these two sensors lets you do some creative post processing and it gets your creative mill running for some out of the box self-portraits. (I consciously refrain myself from the word ‘selfie’, as am not a selfie person, personally). The dual camera self portraits can be further edited to give a smooth, radial or motion blur on the background. It also lets you cut the subject and swap the background or add some creative effects to the background. The quality if the image from the front camera is impressive. The skin tone looks natural and it reproduces good detail under generous lighting conditions. But the low light self portraits are high on noise and low in quality.

IMAGE_20151201_213811
The dual camera self portraits can be further edited to give a smooth, radial or motion blur on the background

If you are a self portrait person, you will definitely enjoy playing with this mobile. The primary camera is a 13 MP sensor and it has a dual tone LED flash. Under daylight, the primary camera images are pretty sharp and reproduce good details. The white balance is bit on the colder side, but that can be adjusted in the settings. The exposure levels and contrast levels on the images are just right. The colors look a but washed out and under saturated. At low lights the image is bright, but noise is prominent. You can adjust the ISO in the settings but you will need steady hands on lower ISO. The camera UI is simple and has most of the functionalities available in the first level of the UI layer. Manual mode is absent. Apart from the auto mode, it has panorama mode.  Both the front and back camera modules can capture videos at 1080p resolution.

Check out the camera samples

Lenovo Vibe S1 Camera Samples

Software

Vibe S1 runs on Android Lollipop 5.0 with the Vibe UI skinned on top. The UI has a few tricks and features up its sleeve. Lenovo theme store is limited to 6 themes and its something which Lenovo has promised us and not delivered since the A7000. But it has a lot of features to make the mobile a useful personal assistant. The Secure Zone, as the name implies offers protected access to apps and files installed on the mobiles. It is like having a second mobile within the mobile. Super power  feature is useful when the battery runs out of juice. It leaves you with a mobile with key mobile functions when your battery is nearly dead. App permission, wide touch, gesture based controls, profile management are a few other Vibe UI specific features that are useful utility features in a Lenovo mobile. Vibe UI has some apps pre-loaded, and they cannot be uninstalled. The UI is fast, responsive and it works seamlessly with the Vibe UI hardware.vibe-s1-ui

 

Battery

Vibe S1 is powered by a 2420 mAh Lithium Polymer battery. Under regular usage, the battery lasts for a day and the super power mode is really handy when you run out of battery power. Vibe UI does not have wireless or fast charging. With the 1 A charger provided, it takes almost 2 hours to charge from zero to 100%.

Screenshot_2015-11-19-14-51-59

 

Verdict

The Lenovo Vibe S1 is a perfect balance between price, design and performance. It does have a few glitches. The mediocre display and the small battery is a let down. But the gorgeous design, snappy UI and creative cameras eclipses all its cons. At Rs 15999, the Vibe S1 competes with OnePlus X, Obi Sf1 32 GB, etc… While the OnePlux X could be a better buy because of its AMOLED display and near stock Android OS, my personal choice and recommendation would be the Vibe S1 for its unique cool design and stylish looks.

Giridhar

A Technology evangelist, Giridhar reviews gadgets and mobile applications. He is also a passionate photographer and a user experience designer by profession.

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[…] for the 32 GB version of the Obi SF1. If you want a pretty looking device, then you can opt for the Vibe S1 or the OnePlus X. If you want a better value for money, get the Coolpad Note 3, which is on our […]

[…] has announced the successor of the Lenovo Vibe S1 which was announced last year. The Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite is a variant of the Vibe […]

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