TECH NEXT: Smartphones and smartwatches for the style conscious

The S1 is one of the best looking devices you can buy under Rs 20,000.Both colour variants are beautifully designed. The Skyline Blue which we checked out has muted shades of blue that extend even around the metal frame to create a premium finish. It’s the same with the Diamond Black with golden accents and textured diamond patterns. The S1 feels good in your hands despite a large 6.39-inch display.

It’s this Super AMOLED display (19.5:9 aspect ratio / 1080 x 2340 pixels) with a dew-drop notch that is one of our favourite features. Vivo stretches the screen: body ratio beyond 90%. The colours are vibrant, it’s among the best in this price segment. The S1 is packed with a triple rear cam that combines a 16MP primary cam, 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP depth sensor. It’s a similar package to many of its rivals and also features a 32MP front cam that shoots sharp selfies.

At the heart of the Vivo S1 is a MediaTek Helio 65 processor. While our review unit featured 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory, Vivo has two other variants — 4GB/128GB and 6GB/GB. All these versions offer support for Micro SD cards up to 256GB. The other big win for the S1 is battery life thanks to a heavy-duty 4500 mAh battery. While the hardware spec sheet should please the average buyer, it’s the Vivo S1’s style quotient and its display that are its highlights. (Rs 17,990 onwards)

Huami Amazfit Bip Lite: It delivers a smartwatch experience at the price of a fitness tracker. The Bip Lite features a squarish rectangle shape with a crown placed on right spine. It feels remarkably light on your wrist — it’s all plastic, and comfortable to wear for long durations. Despite its silicon strap and plastic build, it certainly doesn’t look tacky. The 1.28-inch colour display (176 x 176 pixels) is not too vivid but offers decent visibility under sunlight once you turn up the brightness levels to max. Touchscreen navigation is quite intuitive while the crown functions as a simple back key.

It’s easy to set the Bip Lite (it works with both Android and Apple devices) with the Amazfit companion App that has quite a few data points with a pleasing UI. Aside from standard features like calorie and step counts, sleep tracking, and customisable watch faces, there’s also an optical heart sensor for detailed fitness tracking. The watch is swim proof, thanks to its 3ATM Proof rating (up to 30 metres). Other value additions include call, text and email notifications as well as weather updates. We also like the always-on display option that doesn’t impact battery life — up to days for a charging cycle according to Huami. We hit 80% after almost a week’s usage. That’s something the average smartwatch can’t match. (Rs 3,999)