The Vivo S series has consistently focused on pioneering design and the art of capturing exceptional portraits. The S16, unveiled late last year, is etched in my memory with its captivating “colorful jade” glass back panel that dynamically changes colors, complemented by its strikingly slender body.
Fast forward six months, and the S17 series introduces an intelligent color adjustment system. This innovation empowers the flash to dynamically alter its color during portrait photography. No longer burdened with considerations about the environment, exposure, or angle adjustments, one can effortlessly capture high-quality portrait samples.
As we approach the year-end, the imminent release of the vivo S18 series promises advancements. Balancing thinness and lightness enhances the ring flash, featuring a larger light strip, a broader color temperature range, and adaptive brightness through intelligent color temperature adjustment. Additionally, it introduces the much-anticipated blue ocean battery tailored to the needs of vivo users.
Elevating the soft light ring to studio-level quality with intelligent cold and warm color temperature lighting
The upgraded rear soft light of the vivo S18 builds upon the multi-color temperature automatic adjustment from the previous generation. The color temperature adjustment range sees a nearly 20% increase, and the ring light strip is expanded, covering an area 19 times larger than ordinary flashes. This results in more even and softer fill light.
Pioneering the third generation Snapdragon 7, achieving unparalleled energy efficiency
Equipped with the third-generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform, the S18 boasts a 4nm process technology, ARM V9 instructions, and a Cortex-A715+A510 architecture. Striking a balance between performance and energy efficiency, it sets a new benchmark within the Snapdragon 7 series.
Enhancing the battery to 5000mAh within the slim and lightweight frame
The upgraded vivo S18 extends the phone’s battery life, maintaining a sleek 7.45mm thickness while accommodating a 5000mAh battery. In the realm of thin and light mobile phones in 2023, its battery life stands out remarkably.
Design and Screen
Appearance plays a pivotal role in defining the Vivo S18, as it pioneers the relief carving process, introducing a unique blend of technology and artistry. The S18 inherits the oriental aesthetic design of the S series, with the new design concept named Hua Sijin. This concept seamlessly integrates technology and art, creating a distinctive oriental aesthetic universe for the S series, from the Yan Ruyu of the S16 series to the mountains and seas of the S17 series and now the Hua Sijin of the S18 series.
The back of the S18 features a groundbreaking relief carving process, with 13 million tangent lines intricately cut into the fuselage. These lines, a mere 30μm wide, are horizontally cut into 256 levels, resulting in a petal-like three-dimensional carving. The delicately carved petals come to life when illuminated. Vivo’s first Yunjin glass, with more than 4 million micron-level square diamonds arranged on the glass back panel, imparts a frosted yet delicate and soft feel to the touch. The glass retains a smooth texture, while also being less prone to fingerprints.
The rear lens of the S18 is adorned with a water-light cloud window, inspired by windows capturing light and panoramic views. The camera module, based on two square windows with rounded corners, is designed to be filled with water-light style. The lens group, with two diagonally embedded cameras, features a ring-shaped fill light and dual LED fill light arranged symmetrically. The entire lens group forms a centrally symmetrical aesthetic, with the ring flash maintaining consistency with the previous generation, intelligently adjusting warm and cold color temperatures.
The front of the S18 has a 6.78-inch hyperbolic OLED screen, maintaining the excellent display quality of the previous generation. The screen features a 120Hz high refresh rate, 2800 × 1260 resolution, 8000000:1 ultra-high static contrast ratio, 10-bit color depth, and a rare local peak brightness of 2800nit among portrait phones.
In terms of dimensions, the S18 impressively maintains a slim profile, measuring only 7.45mm in thickness. The top of the phone hosts a single opening for the noise-reduction microphone, while the bottom is equipped with a single speaker. The right side features the Type-C interface, microphone, and SIM card slot.
Cameras
The vivo S18 has two rear cameras, with the primary camera featuring a 50-megapixel OV50H sensor. This sensor, equipped with a 1/1.55-inch photosensitive unit, supports OIS Hummingbird super anti-shake.
The ultra-wide-angle functionality is powered by an 8-megapixel OV08D10 sensor, supporting a 106° field of view.
In daylight scenarios, the combination of the high 50 Megapixels and a substantial 1/1.55-inch photosensitive area ensures commendable imaging quality, even in overcast conditions. Remarkably, even after a 2x crop and enlargement, the picture’s resolution remains excellent. Without zooming in, the image quality is on par with the secondary camera with a native 2x focal length.
When capturing night scenes, the OIS Hummingbird super anti-shake significantly enhances the film yield rate. Night photography, even with one-handed shooting, results in rapid and impressive film production. Additionally, when photographing direct light, it adeptly disperses the light, presenting a soft and pure image. The night scene performance is comparable to that of most high-end phones.
Regarding color reproduction, the device leans towards expressing high saturation while preserving light and dark details in light and shadow. Bright sections are not excessively dazzling, and even after enlargement, small characters in dark areas remain visible.
For the ultra-wide-angle sample, the 8 Megapixel resolution proves entirely adequate for general viewing, with default distortion correction ensuring no blurring at the picture’s edges. This meets our everyday recording needs for ultra-wide pictures.
In portrait mode, utilizing the 2x crop zoom yields delicate portraits with every detail displayed vividly. The characters’ facial features exhibit a remarkable three-dimensional quality, with lifelike eyes, noses, mouths, and other parts, seemingly ready to jump off the page.
The skin tones appear natural and pure, avoiding the excessive whitening seen in other portrait-focused mobile phones. The resulting portraits exhibit no artificial traces, conveying a sense of reality and intimacy.
Overall, the picture texture is excellent, with vibrant yet soft colors, well-balanced light and shadow processing, and automatic background blurring that immerses viewers in the scene, evoking a tangible atmosphere and emotion.
Performance and Gaming
The vivo S18 has the third-generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform, featuring an impressive 16GB+512GB storage configuration—the very model we have on hand.
We proceeded to measure the theoretical and gaming performance of the mobile phone.
Performance Testing
In the theoretical performance test, we set the phone’s brightness to 50%, disabled automatic brightness, turned off memory expansion, and activated performance mode (BOOST) for testing.
Firstly, we conducted a comprehensive performance test using the latest version of AnTuTu V10. The total score reached an impressive 923,700, marking a nearly 30% improvement over the Snapdragon 778G Plus-equipped previous generation vivo S17.
Subsequently, we performed individual tests on the CPU and GPU performance of the S18.
In the Geekbench 6 test, the Snapdragon 7 Gen3’s CPU single-core score reached 1203 points, and the multi-core score hit 3439 points—approximately 15% and 11.5% higher than the Snapdragon 778G Plus, respectively.
For the GPU test, utilizing GFXBench’s six 1080P projects under continuous test conditions, the results were as follows:
- Aztec Ruins OpenGL: 68FPS
- Aztec Ruins Vulkan: 77FPS
- Racing chase frame rate: 58FPS
- Manhattan 3.1 off-screen: 101FPS
- Manhattan off-screen: 135FPS
- Tyrannosaurus Rex off-screen: 220FPS
- Isolating the GPU performance, it’s evident that it surpasses the Snapdragon 778G Plus by about 73%.
Game test
Moving on, we meticulously tested the gaming performance of the vivo S18 in an office environment with a room temperature of 26 degrees Celsius.
We chose two popular mobile games, namely “Honor of Kings” and “Peace Elite,” and selected the highest frame rate under the maximum image quality (prioritizing image quality) for game testing. We recorded frame rates, power consumption, energy efficiency ratio, and the temperature performance of the device.
King of Glory
Starting with the mobile game “Honor of Kings,” under high-definition image quality and an extremely high frame rate, the average frame rate remained stable at 120.3FPS after a team battle, with an average fluctuation of 0.8.
The average power consumption measured 3.5W, with a frame energy consumption of 29.3mW and an energy efficiency ratio of 34.1FPS/W.
Post-game, the temperature on the front and back of the device reached 39.5 degrees Celsius. Holding the phone with both hands, you’ll notice a gradual accumulation of heat, but it doesn’t become uncomfortably hot.
Peace Elite
In the mobile game “Peace Elite,” under high-definition quality and an extreme frame rate, the average frame rate held steady at 59.9 FPS after an intense battle, running close to the full frame, with an average fluctuation of 1.9, and the picture remained surprisingly stable.
In terms of temperature, it was slightly higher than “Honor of Kings,” with the maximum temperature reaching 41 degrees Celsius on the front and 40.9 degrees Celsius on the back.
Battery
Vivo S18 collaborates with leading lithium battery companies to revolutionize the battery using material, process, and multiple patented technology innovations. Despite prioritizing thinness and lightness, the battery capacity has not only been maintained but increased. Equipped with a built-in 5000mAh large-capacity battery, it stands out as the longest-lasting among the slimmest mobile phones in 2023, asserting its position as the most powerful mobile phone.
The S18 not only boasts an impressive battery life but also maintains charging capabilities at the industry’s flagship level, supporting up to 80W long-distance flash charging.
In the realm of charging and battery life, we conducted tests on the vivo S18.
During the charging test, the S18 exhibited exceptional performance. Starting from 1%, it reached 30% in 10 minutes, 56% in 20 minutes, 82% in half an hour, and achieved a full charge in just 39 minutes.
Moving on to the endurance test, we employed the professional battery life testing tool, Battery Dog, developed by Kuai Technology. The default 20% power test was conducted, encompassing CPU high voltage, CPU multi-threading, AI recognition, picture browsing, video playback, and web browsing to simulate various user scenarios. This approach aimed to replicate real-world usage conditions and closely emulate actual power consumption.
Throughout the test, environmental variables were carefully controlled to ensure consistency across all models. Battery Dog automatically adjusted the screen brightness to 50%, disabled automatic brightness, and set the volume to 30%.
After non-stop testing by Battery Dog, the battery depleted from 100% to 20% in 10 hours, 27 minutes, and 58 seconds. When converted, the full battery life approached nearly 12 hours. It’s astounding to consider that this remarkable performance is delivered by a hefty 185.8g battery in an 8mm body, showcasing the endurance of a thin and light mobile phone measuring about 7.45mm.
Verdict
vivo has always excelled in the art of capturing portraits. Over five years and ten generations, from the inception of the S series to the year 2023, the vivo S18 has perfected the art of portrait blur segmentation. The resulting portraits are presented with utmost naturalness, distinguishing themselves from other smartphones by avoiding excessive beautification. The facial details of subjects are vividly showcased, and the depth-of-field recognition boasts rich levels, ensuring a remarkably natural blur at the portrait edges.
Moreover, the Vivo S18 features a multi-color temperature and multi-brightness ring soft light, liberating users from environmental constraints. This innovative addition eliminates the need for constant adjustments to exposure and angle, enabling the capture of textured portrait photos. Say goodbye to complaints from your girlfriend about your inability to take good pictures!
Performance-wise, the S18 is powered by the third-generation Snapdragon 7, demonstrating its prowess by effortlessly outperforming mainstream mobile games in our tests.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect is the third-generation Snapdragon 7’s integration of a 4nm advanced process, significantly boosting the energy efficiency of the S18. Coupled with the largest 5000mAh blue ocean battery in a thin and light mobile phone, the Battery Dog test clocked the battery life at an impressive 12 hours. It’s astonishing to envision such endurance in a slim and lightweight portrait phone, putting it in direct competition with today’s flagship phones.
In summary, the vivo S18 smartphone not only stands out as the most aesthetically pleasing among slim and lightweight phones but also claims the throne for the longest battery life in this category. If you’re a selfie enthusiast seeking a stylish, lightweight phone with exceptional battery life, the vivo S18 deserves consideration in your purchasing options.
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