Lenovo Vibe S1: First impressions

Lenovo Vibe S1: First impressions

From the initial expressions, we have to say, Lenovo Vibe S1 is definitely a premium looking device. The smartphone has an aluminum frame, a curved glass back with a glossy finish, which seems largely inspired from the Samsung S6/S6 Edge and looks quite premium. But at the same time, is a fingerprint magnet. A Vibe branding in chrome is embossed at the centre of the glass and a 13MP rear camera with LED flash sits at the top.
The front has a 5-inch full HD display with three touch capacitive buttons at the bottom, a speaker grille at the top, light sensors and the dual front facing cameras- one 8MP primary camera and another 2MP secondary shooter.
Vibe S1 feels quite light (132g) and solid and its rounded edges makes it a comfortable to use even with one hand.

​Display





Lenovo Vibe S1 boasts a 5-inch 1080p IPS display, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The display is very responsive and has good brightness levels.
However, colours don’t seem punchy. We will evaluate the display performance in direct sunlight during the detailed review of the smartphone.



Cameras- the highlight





The highlight of the smartphone is its dual selfie cameras, which includes an 8MP main shooter and a 2MP secondary camera. While taking a selfie, you can turn on the dual camera mode by simply tapping on the dual camera icon on the top. After you take a selfie, you can then blur the background or cut the subject and add a different background. The DSLR-like blur effect works quite well and gives decent images with the main subject in focus; but we did not enjoy the swap/cut out feature on this. You have to make a number of attempts to get the required effect.
​
Besides, the 13MP rear camera is capable to take amazing shots. We were delighted to see the detailing in the pictures taken in day-light conditions. The colours look quite punchy and the camera sensor does not waste any time in locking a subject and capturing it. The low-light performance is also very good. We will talk more about the camera performance and will show the sample shots in the detailed review of the smartphone.
What’s inside?





Under the hood is a 1.7GHz octa-core 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 SoC, paired with 3GB RAM, which we found to be smooth during the little time that we spent with the handset. There were no lags in basic screen navigation, application loading and shifting from one app to another during multitasking. Lenovo Vibe S1 runs Android 5.0 with Lenovo’s custom UI running atop, which were pretty smooth.

​More to know





Lenovo Vibe S1 has a 32 GB of internal storage that can be expanded by up to 128GB via microSD card. The non-removable rear panel of the smartphone hides a 2,500mAh battery unit, which seems to be a bit underpowered. We will evaluate its performance during the review of the device.
The smartphone has dual SIM 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS as connectivity options. It is available in Pearl White and Midnight Blue colours on Amazon.in.