At the end of 2023, the vivo S18 series made a stunning debut with a new "Flowery" colorway. This mobile phone, which incorporates oriental aesthetic design, not only brings a unique aesthetic experience visually, but also has significant improvements in performance, screen, battery life and image.
Today, we will bring you a comprehensive review of the vivo S18 to see if it can become a new force in the market and meet users' pursuit of combining fashion and technology.
1 Core configuration at a glance
As usual, let's take a look at the core parameters of vivo S18 first:
2 Blossom on the Cake - Continuing the Chinese romance of the S series
From Yan Ruyu of the S16 series to Shanhaiqing of the S17 series, vivo has injected oriental aesthetics and art into the cold technology products, giving the mobile phone humanistic emotions, and allowing more users to feel the charm of traditional culture. This integration not only demonstrates vivo's pursuit of technological innovation, but also demonstrates its respect for oriental aesthetics and the inheritance of traditional culture by domestic brands.
S16 series "Yan Ruyu" and S17 series "Shanhaiqing"
On the S18 series, vivo brought a new "flowery" colorway. According to the official introduction, the flowers in the oriental artistic conception are taken from the flowers, condensed elements such as flowers and cloud brocade, and integrated the beautiful meanings of looking forward to success, life growth, and cherishing time.
Specifically, vivo is inspired by the smiling face of the blooming flowers, and adopts the innovative "floating pattern" process in the S18, which "blooms" the butterfly-shaped petals on the back of the fuselage. The surface of the petals is plated with a layer of "Yunjin glass", so that the S18 has a silky glass touch while maintaining the touch of the petal texture.
In addition to the "flowery" color, this time vivo S18 also brings a new color "Qingqing". It not only inherits the warm texture of "Yan Ruyu", but also continues the artistic conception of "mountains and seas", and the color of "Xuanhei" is made of classic AG frosted glass, which is a choice that cannot be mistaken.
In terms of design, the vivo S18 has upgraded the classic cloud window design of the S series, bringing a new "waterlight cloud window" design. Inside the "Water Light Cloud Window" are two square windows with rounded corners, corresponding to the lens module and the soft light ring. The rounded 2.5D glass also brings a dual visual and tactile experience.
On the front of the fuselage, vivo S18 uses a 6.78-inch 120Hz sunrise eye protection screen, with a local peak brightness of up to 2800nits, and P3 wide color gamut and 10bit color depth and other parameters ensure the user's visual experience.
On the right side of the fuselage are the volume buttons and power buttons, and at the bottom of the fuselage are SIM card slots, Type-C ports and speakers.
Overall, this time vivo S18 is quite attentive in design, whether it is the new "Flowery Brocade" color or the new color "Qingche" inherited from "Yan Ruyu" and "Shanhai Qing", all of which fully demonstrate the unique understanding and ingenious integration of Oriental aesthetics of Blue Factory.
3 Studio Portraits – A milestone in the S Series of images
From the Moonlight soft light pioneered by the X7 series, to the 5-fold ultra-textured beauty created by the S5 series, to the micron-level rejuvenation and sculpting initiated by the S12 series, the S series continues to challenge the limits of hardware and algorithms.
On the S18 series, Blue Factory brings a new upgrade in portrait - studio-level portrait shooting. According to the official introduction, this is the closest attempt to the studio effect so far, vivo tries to replicate the complete studio-level shooting experience on the mobile phone: including studio-level light and shadow effects, studio-level clear picture quality and studio-level picture atmosphere, allowing users to show a radiant style anytime and anywhere.
As usual, let's take a look at the image configuration of the vivo S18 first.
In terms of hardware, the front of the vivo S18 is an ultra-light portrait lens, and the sensor is the Samsung JN1 that we are very familiar with. This 50-million-pixel lens is not only the highest pixel front lens in the blue factory, but also the f/2.0 aperture is also the brand's highest.
On the rear lens,vivo S18Equipped with a human eye bionic portrait lens(main camera),The sensor is the OV50E, which has been very popular recently,1/1.55"Sensor size and50000000000 pixels ensure the quality of the film,OISHighingbird super image stabilization ensures stability。
In addition, the soft light, as the signature configuration of the S series, has not fallen behind on the S18. The front studio-level dual soft light and the rear studio-level soft halo ensure that the fill light in portrait shooting is softer, and say goodbye to blurry black faces or unevenly lit yin and yang faces.
In terms of algorithms, vivo S18 adopts advanced AI neural network technology and launches a studio-level portrait algorithm matrix, aiming to transcend hardware limitations and achieve effects comparable to the fine retouching of professional retouchers and studio-level portrait texture.
We also used the vivo S18 to get started with a few sets of portrait shots:
Based on excellent hardware and software tuning and optimization, the vivo S18 has a very good experience in portrait shooting.
First of all, the clarity of the sample is very high, and the details of the makeup of the character's face, the hair strands, and the texture on the clothes are clearly visible. In addition, the skin tone of the portrait has also been strengthened, the complexion is more ruddy and fair, and the facial features are also prominent, making the face look more three-dimensional. In addition, it is worth mentioning that thanks to the vivo S18 hair-level portrait bokeh algorithm, the portrait can be accurately separated from the background, creating a professional DSLR-level portrait bokeh effect.
In addition, we mentioned earlier that the vivo S18 rear image module has a soft light ring underneath it, which can intelligently fill the light with color temperature according to the shooting environment, for example:
Manually adjust to a portrait sample with warm light
Manually adjust to a portrait sample with a cold glow
The two portrait samples above use warm and cool light to fill in the light, but the effect is not ideal. The first face has a very strong color cast, and the second cold light makes the face pale.
vivo S18自动色温补光效果
And when we turn on the soft halo intelligent lighting, vivo S18 selects the appropriate color temperature according to the current environment for supplemental light, which not only makes the character's complexion ruddy, but also improves the overall temperament.
In addition to the rear portrait, the Vivo S18 also performs well in selfies.
Thanks to vivo S18's excellent hardware and algorithms, in addition to the good beautification effect on the character in selfies, the overall temperament and photo texture of the character are also improved by optimizing the skin tone of the character. In addition, the overall picture of the sample is clear and the visual effect is excellent.
The Vivo S18 also does a good job in landscape shots:
The three image styles of the same model as its own image flagship, such as vividness, texture and naturalness, have also been devolved in vivo S18 this time:
鲜明
Texture
nature
It is worth mentioning that this time the vivo S18 series also brings a new "dopamine film photo frame", which brings a unique watermark to each photo by picking color from the photo frame.
Overall, the vivo S18 once again demonstrated its leading position in mobile portrait shooting. With advanced hardware configuration and innovative AI neural network technology, the S18 successfully delivers a near-studio-level shooting experience. Both the front and rear cameras capture images with high definition, natural skin tones, and rich detail. In addition, the unique studio-grade dual soft light and soft ring design ensures uniform lighting, avoiding common shooting problems. For users who like selfies and portrait photography, the vivo S18 is undoubtedly an option worth considering.
4 Flagship-level performance – 3rd generation Snapdragon 7
In terms of performance, the vivo S18 is equipped with the third-generation Snapdragon 7, which uses TSMC's 4nm process technology. CPU-wise, the third-generation Snapdragon 7 has a high-performance core cluster that includes large, medium, and small cores for a balance between multitasking and power saving. Specifically, the frequency of its large core is 2.63GHz, the frequency of the medium core is 2.4GHz, and the frequency of the small core is 1.8GHz.
In terms of GPUs, the third-generation Snapdragon 7 delivers more than 50% better GPU performance than the previous generation, which means better performance for graphics-intensive applications such as gaming and video editing.
Overall, vivo S18 has been on par with the flagship in terms of performance, with up to 16+512GB storage combination, it is still relatively bright in terms of performance, and we have also conducted relevant performance tests on this configuration.
The first is the benchmark test:
Judging from the results, the performance of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is stronger than the Dimensity 8100 and the old flagship Snapdragon 870, but weaker than the Snapdragon 7+ Gen2, which is in line with Qualcomm's positioning for the Snapdragon 7 series.
In terms of game testing, we chose "Honor of Kings" and "Genshin Impact" as test games, and conducted a game and a 15-minute running test respectively, and the results are as follows:
Honor of Kings is very stable during gameplay at the highest image quality and frame rate, and the game can be maintained at around 120 fps throughout the game.
In the Genshin Impact test, the vivo S18's performance was somewhat unexpected. Compared with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3's competitor model's score of more than 40 frames, vivo S18 can basically stabilize at 60 frames in the process of running the map, and several frame drop fluctuations are brought about by the release of skills and the transfer between maps. If you need to play Genshin Impact with vivo S18, you can appropriately reduce the image quality of the game to keep the frame rate stable.
5 Thin and light experience - the essence is concentrated in the millimeter
Finally, I would like to talk to you about the feel of the vivo S18.
As we all know, thinness and lightness have always been an important label of the S series products. However, the thin and light body means that you need to find a balance between hardware configuration and battery life, and the thin and light body also poses a challenge to the durability of the body to a large extent.
This time, vivo S18 is not only thinner and lighter, but also officially said that it also has the best battery life, performance and screen of the S series so far, proficient in all kinds of martial arts, and refreshes the experience to a new height.
Specifically, the body of vivo S18 is only 7.45mm thick, and the weight of the body is only 185g. On the premise of being lighter and thinner than the previous generation, the battery capacity has been increased from 4600mAh to 5000mAh, and the fast charging power of 80W is still maintained.
According to actual measurements, vivo S18 can be charged to 71% in half an hour, and it can be fully charged in about 44 minutes.
In terms of battery life, under ZOL's 5-hour heavy battery life test model, vivo S18 has 69% remaining power, and the blue factory does have two brushes in terms of battery life this year.
On the other hand, vivo S18 has been comprehensively strengthened in terms of cushioning, structure, and protection to ensure that it is more durable and reliable while being thin and light.
Specifically, vivo S18 has carried out all-round enhanced protection measures on the front and back lens groups, bezels and four corners of the phone.
On the front of the phone, it uses high-performance "SCHOTT α" glass to ensure that the screen surface is sufficiently solid.
On the back, a taller metal bezel is designed to protect the fragile glass edge of the lens group, so that the lens can be effectively protected from scratches and damage when the phone is dropped.
In addition, the side bezel of the phone has been widened by about 34%, and officials say that compared to the S17, the deformation of the phone can be reduced by 21% under the same weight.
In the four corners of the phone's interior, the vivo S18 is also embedded with a custom aluminum alloy material, which increases the strength by 20%.
In addition, vivo S18 is also equipped with innovative anti-aircraft structure design, innovative component wrapping design, and has passed more than 70 drop and twist tests, all of which reflect vivo's rigorous pursuit of product quality and intimate consideration of user experience.
6 Summary
To sum up, vivo S18 not only continues the oriental aesthetics and humanistic emotions of the S series in terms of design, but also shows a unique understanding and ingenious integration of traditional culture through the "flowery" color scheme and the new waterlight cloud window design. In terms of imaging, the upgrade of studio-level portrait shooting and the application of AI neural network technology make vivo S18 able to provide a portrait shooting experience close to that of a professional studio effect. In terms of performance, the vivo S18 with a third-generation Snapdragon 7 processor performs well. In addition, the thin and light body, excellent battery life, and fully enhanced protection measures also make the vivo S18 a product worthy of users' trust.
Overall, the vivo S18 series is an important iteration of the S series, which not only retains the classic elements of the S series, but also incorporates innovative design and features, bringing users a new experience. This mobile phone not only shows vivo's pursuit of technological innovation, but also reflects its respect for oriental aesthetics and the inheritance of traditional culture by domestic brands. Whether in terms of design, image or performance, vivo S18 has shown unique charm and strength, and it is a product worth recommending.
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