Vivo currently stands as the only mobile phone brand featuring a soft light ring flash. The S16 series introduced a single-color warm, dual high-bright LED ring fill light, while the S17 series evolved to include a multi-color warm, full soft light ring flash. This progression marks a significant change in flashlight design within the Vivo S series. By the end of 2023, Vivo’s S series will unveil its latest creations: the S18e, S18, and S18 Pro. These models, representing medium, large, and extra-large sizes, span the entry-level to high-end segments of portrait mobile phones.
The S18e, a medium-sized model in the Vivo S18 series, inherits the single-color temperature, dual high-brightness LED ring fill light from the S16 series, along with the full soft light ring flash of the S17 series. As the entry-level model, it forgoes multi-color temperature control but introduces the Sony LYT600 main camera, elevating portrait photography in this segment.
- Dual Light Fill System for Enhanced Photography
The Vivo S18e enhances its rear flash by maintaining the previous generation’s full soft ring flash and adding a single color temperature, dual high-brightness LED fill light. The soft ring flash is ideal for close-up portraits, while the high-brightness ring flash captures detailed shots from a distance. This dual light fill system ensures clearer, brighter images.
- Improved 80W Wired Charging
The S18e also boosts its charging capability, moving from 66W to 80W. This increase theoretically improves charging efficiency. Moreover, the battery retains over 80% health after 1,600 charge-discharge cycles, extending its lifespan to about four years.
Design
The vivo S18e features a 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED direct screen with a 6000000:1 static contrast ratio. It supports the P3 wide color gamut and 8-bit color depth, with a local peak brightness of 1800nit. We examined the vivo S18e’s screen pixel arrangement, which forms a tripod shape. The screen offers a 2400 × 1080 resolution, a standard PPI of 394, and an RGB equivalent PPI of about 322.
Above the phone’s screen sits a 16-megapixel front camera. The phone’s glass back panel employs a textured photolithography process. Laser drawing with 1μm precision carves grid lines, creating a silk-like thread appearance while maintaining a smooth surface. The back of the phone displays a three-dimensional translucent texture that shifts with the phone’s movement, thanks to the light hitting its surface.
The S18e’s rear lens group surrounds a cloud window design. This group features carefully polished translucent radial patterns, with the edge mimicking a double-circle scale pattern of watch indicators, creating a rich, three-dimensional light and shadow effect. Besides the dual cameras, the phone includes dual LED monochrome temperature fill lights and a ring soft light.
The top of the S18e is sleek, housing only a noise-reduction microphone. The bottom features a speaker, Type-C charging port, microphone, and SIM card slot. The package contains a transparent silicone phone case, charger set, SIM card, and quick start guide. The vivo S18e supports up to 80W wired fast charging and includes a standard 80W fast charging charger.
Cameras
The vivo S18e features a rear dual-camera module, with the main camera utilizing Sony’s new CMOS, Guangyu LYT600. This sensor boasts a 1/1.953-inch photosensitive unit, a single pixel size of 0.8μm, and an F1.79 aperture. OIS Hummingbird super anti-shake is also supported. A 2-megapixel blur camera serves as the second lens, contributing to a specific blur effect when capturing portraits.
In situations with insufficient ambient light, such as cloudy scenes, the photos captured with the vivo S18e accurately reproduce the scene as perceived by the naked eye. Thanks to OIS optical image stabilization, even if the phone is held horizontally with a slight handshake, there is no blurring, significantly enhancing the photo yield rate.
Additionally, when utilizing OIS optical image stabilization and night scene mode for night photography, clear results can be achieved with just one-handed stabilization during long exposure (1 to 2 seconds). This approach eliminates the need for extreme stability with both hands, producing pure and high-exposure images. In scenes with mixed lighting, the S18e demonstrates effective control over light and shadow lines, especially about light signs.
Turning to portrait shooting, the 2x portrait mode on the S18e produces exceptionally natural portraits. Details like hair, face, and clothing are well-rendered without any noticeable traces of algorithms, resembling images captured with intentionally lowered physical apertures.
For night portrait photography, the rear ring flash proves useful in illuminating the subject’s face in darker environments. The soft light it emits is more uniform compared to a brightness-stimulating flash, enabling the capture of subtle textures such as skin pores and changes in skin color with clarity.
Performance and Gaming Analysis of Vivo S18e
Vivo S18e’s Hardware
The Vivo S18e comes equipped with the Dimensity 7200 mobile platform and TSMC N4P technology. It features a CPU with 2 Cortex-A715 and 6 Cortex-A510 cores and a Mali-G610 GPU. Our model has 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB UFS 2.2 storage.
Performance Testing Setup
We tested the vivo S18e’s performance and gaming capabilities. We set the screen brightness to 50%, disabled automatic brightness, and memory expansion, and activated BOOST mode.
Theoretical Performance Tests
- AnTuTu Score: 772,000 points.
- GeekBench6 CPU Score: 1235 (single-core), 2698 (multi-core).
- GFXBench GPU Tests: Aztec Ruins OpenGL (48FPS), Aztec Ruins Vulkan (53FPS), Racing Chase (38FPS), Manhattan 3.1 (67FPS), Manhattan (97FPS), T-Rex (156FPS).
- Performance under sustained load resulted in decreased frame rates.
- The device handles mainstream online games effortlessly.
- Flash Memory Speeds: 1115MB/s (read), 1137MB/s (write).
Gaming Performance Tests
Conducted at 25°C in an office environment, using “QQ Speed”, “Honor of Kings”, and “Call of Duty” at the highest frame rates and image quality.
- QQ Speed
- Max/Average Frame Rate: 120/115.6 FPS.
- Power Consumption: 3.9W, Efficiency: 29.6FPS/W.
- Temperatures: 36.3°C (front), 35.2°C (back).
- Honor of Kings
- Stable at 60 FPS.
- Power Consumption: 2.38W, Efficiency: 25.2FPS/W.
- Temperatures: 34.7°C (front), 34.1°C (back).
- Call of Duty
- Average Frame Rate: 88.9 FPS.
- Temperatures: 34.3°C (front), 33.6°C (back).
Battery
The vivo S18e features a substantial 4800mAh built-in battery and can achieve up to 80W single-cell wired fast charging.
We conducted tests on the S18e’s charging capacity and battery life. Starting from 1%, it reaches 33% in 10 minutes, 55% in 20 minutes, 78% in half an hour, and fully charges in 43 minutes.
For battery life testing, we used the Battery Dog tool from Kuai Technology. The default test includes a 20% power test and various scenarios like CPU high voltage, CPU multi-threading, AI recognition, picture browsing, video playback, and web browsing to simulate user usage. To maintain consistent environmental variables, Battery Dog adjusts screen brightness to 50%, turns off automatic brightness, and sets the volume to 30%.
After continuous testing, the S18e took 7 hours, 42 minutes, and 22 seconds to consume power from 100% to 20%, providing nearly 9 hours of full battery life. This ensures that ordinary users can use it comfortably throughout the day.
Verdict
The vivo S18e targets students and young women who enjoy taking selfies and portraits. Its new rear dual-fill halo allows for impressive portraits both day and night. The phone includes flagship OIS hummingbird optical image stabilization, enhancing film quality, especially in night mode. This feature allows for easy one-handed, long-exposure night shots.
The phone’s appearance features a glass back panel, intricately carved using textured photolithography. This design creates a three-dimensional interplay of light and shadow, offering a frosted feel in hand. Using the S18e leaves a lasting, unforgettable tactile impression.
Focusing on portrait photography, the S18e comes with the Dimensity 7200 chip, providing solid performance for mainstream mobile games. The smooth Origin OS4 operating system ensures lag-free daily use.
Beyond aesthetics and photography, the Vivo S18e boasts improved charging capabilities without sacrificing battery life. It charges fully in just 43 minutes with 80W power, a 20% improvement over previous models. This upgrade ensures both excellent battery life and quick charging.
For those seeking a phone that excels in portrait photography without breaking the bank, the vivo S18e is worth considering.
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