In-depth Experience of the vivo S20 Series: The Perfect Balance of Slimness, Long Battery Life, and Atmospheric Imaging

In-depth Experience of the vivo S20 Series: The Perfect Balance of Slimness, Long Battery Life, and Atmospheric ImagingOn November 28th, the vivo S20 series was officially launched, comprising the standard S20 and the S20 Pro, starting at 2299. vivo defines this new release as the "debut of a beautiful aesthetic flagship

In-depth Experience of the vivo S20 Series: The Perfect Balance of Slimness, Long Battery Life, and Atmospheric Imaging

On November 28th, the vivo S20 series was officially launched, comprising the standard S20 and the S20 Pro, starting at 2299. vivo defines this new release as the "debut of a beautiful aesthetic flagship." So, just how beautiful is this generation of the S series? And what new upgrades does it offer? This article provides an in-depth hands-on experience of the vivo S20, analyzing it in detail from the perspectives of design, imaging, and performance.

I. Design: A Perfect Fusion of Slim Aesthetics and Exquisite Craftsmanship

vivo emphasizes that design carries equal weight with imaging, system, and performance, a long-term commitment for the company. Previously, the vivo S series has showcased classic designs like Monet Impressionism, rhombus aesthetics, Jade-like appearance, and Smoke-green. The new S20 series aims to be the epitome of vivo's "aesthetic flagship."

The vivo S20 is available in three colors: Feather Gold, Jade Dew White, and Pine Smoke Black. This review focuses on the Jade Dew White version. vivo has consistently mastered white color tones, and the Jade Dew White of the S20 isn't a pure, stark white; it's an oily, smooth white, like jade, with a full, rich texture.

In terms of design language, the vivo S20 inherits the overall style of the S19 series. The camera module retains the "Sunrise in the East, Beauty from the East" design concept, with its layered cloud-tiered lens arrangement. Details have been refined; the high-gloss brushed finish of the S19 lens has been replaced with a Parisian stud design on the S20, adding a touch of sophistication.

The outer ring of the vivo S20 camera is embellished with a fine diamond grid texture. Each line is 0.126 mm wide, with 180 lines on each side, creating 360 diamond structures on a single lens module, significantly enhancing the sense of refinement. The frame uses a subtly straight-edged design, while the back features a full 3D glass with a smooth and natural transition.

However, the S20 still employs a plastic frame, reflecting a certain level of material hierarchy in vivo's product choices. This hierarchy is also evident in the single speaker and the rotor motor. Yes, the vivo S20 still uses a rotor motor, which presents a slight contrast to its refined appearance. For long-time S-series users, however, this might be familiar, as the S16 series already used this type of motor.

Despite these minor shortcomings, the vivo S20 boasts a surprisingly slim design: a body thickness of 7.19mm and a weight of 187g (186g for the Jade Dew White version). Considering the S20 houses a massive 6500mAh battery, this level of thinness is remarkable, even defying some perceptions of physical limitations. vivo's seamless integration of a large battery with a slender body is truly impressive.

The front features a 6.67-inch slightly curved screen with narrow bezels of only 1.77mm on the sides. The screen specifications include a 2800x1260 resolution (1.5K), a 2000Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate, a 460PPI high pixel density, 10-bit color depth, 100% P3 wide color gamut, and a 120Hz refresh rate.

The entire vivo S20 series uses BOE's Q10 light-emitting components, the same as the iQOO 13. BOE's Q10 boasts significant improvements in color reproduction, power consumption, lifespan, and brightness. Compared to its predecessor, the S20 series reduces power consumption by 10%, color deviation by 50%, and ghosting by 15%. The screen brightness reaches 800 nits (manual maximum brightness), 1600 nits (global peak brightness), and 5000 nits (local peak brightness), ensuring clear display in various environments.

To protect users' eye health, the vivo S20 supports 3840Hz ultra-high-frequency PWM dimming technology, meeting the IEEE flicker-free hazard standard. Furthermore, vivo has specifically introduced a "Senior Color Mode" for older users, further enhancing the product's user-friendliness and catering to the reduced blue-green color perception and varying brightness adaptation needs of this demographic.

II. Imaging: A Perfect Combination of Atmospheric Imaging and Soft-Light Selfies

Photography has always been a highlight of the vivo S series. The entire vivo S20 series features a 50-megapixel front-facing anti-distortion soft-light selfie lens with 0.8x to 2x free zoom, ensuring clear auto-focus for close-ups, half-body shots, and group photos. The lens specifications include a 1/2.76-inch sensor, 0.64m pixel size, /2.0 aperture, and a 90 wide angle. This JN1 sensor, typically used as an ultrawide secondary camera in flagship phones, is a rare find as a front-facing lens. The vivo S20 retains the front-facing wide-angle dual soft-light design, cleverly hidden in the top bezel.

On the rear, the S20 uses a 50-megapixel wide-angle main camera + 8-megapixel ultrawide camera combination. The main camera employs a large 1/1.55-inch sensor with OIS optical image stabilization and an f/1.88 aperture; the ultrawide camera uses a 1/4-inch sensor. The vivo S20 features a rear studio-level soft light ring, similar to the circular soft lights used by beauty bloggers, providing on-demand facial fill light for brighter, more translucent skin tones and a more natural complexion. This soft light ring offers Rembrandt and Butterfly lighting modes and can adapt to different scenes.

Building on its selfie and portrait photography capabilities, the vivo S20 series enhances the atmospheric feel of photos and introduces exclusive film tones, adding richer storytelling elements. Four film imaging styles are built-in: Reminiscence (soft and retro), Warm Sun (intense warm tones), Cold Film (fresh and cool tones), and Vivid (bright skin tones). Each style presents a unique retro texture. The vivo S20 comes pre-installed with a film camera function; users can simply swipe up on the camera interface to switch between different film effects, replicating the tactile feel of film camera buttons and the animation of the film developing process; it also supports one-click printing, enhancing the sense of ceremony in photography.

The vivo S20 series' watermark function intelligently selects colors from the image, providing a dopamine-themed film paper background and allowing the addition of personalized signatures or automatic recording of time, location, anniversary countdowns, etc. Users can freely adjust and combine these elements to increase the commemorative value of their photos. When dynamic image capture is enabled, the dopamine border also pulsates with the photo content, enhancing the atmospheric feel even further.

III. Performance: A Perfect Combination of Balanced Configuration and Powerful Battery Life

The vivo S20 standard version is powered by the third-generation Snapdragon 7 platform (Snapdragon 7 Gen 3), offering up to 16GB+512GB storage. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 uses TSMC's 4nm process technology, with a CPU architecture of four dedicated performance cores and four dedicated efficiency cores, a maximum frequency of 2.63GHz, and a 64-bit architecture. Overall CPU performance is improved by nearly 15%, and GPU performance is increased by over 50%.

For the vivo S20 standard version, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is a reasonable choice. While its performance doesn't match the Snapdragon 8 series, it's more than sufficient for daily use, easily handling games and everyday applications.

• In tests, Honor of Kings ran at the highest graphics and frame rate settings, achieving an average frame rate of 120.5fps, with a largely stable frame rate curve and a stable frame rate index of 0, showing excellent performance. Power consumption during gameplay remained around just 3W, thanks to a 20% optimization in power consumption from the third-generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform.

• When handling games like Honor of Kings, the experience difference between the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8 series chips is not significant; in fact, it performs even better in terms of temperature control, with the vivo S20 showing almost no heating during gameplay. Of course, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 does have performance limitations; when running large games such as Genshin Impact, the graphics settings need to be lowered to ensure smooth operation.

The vivo S20's performance configuration aligns with its positioning. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is sufficient for daily use and mainstream gaming needs, offering lower heat and power consumption. However, compared to the Snapdragon 8 series, a performance gap remains,