The global RAM shortage has forced smartphone makers to go back to the drawing board and rethink the spec sheets of their midrange offerings. To keep the pricing in check, brands across the board have been making trade-offs on their recent releases. The Vivo T5 Pro, launched in April, makes concessions under the hood, as it packs the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset, which is a notch below the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor powering its predecessor. On top of that, the 3x periscope telephoto lens has been dropped from the camera island. Not all is doom and gloom, however, as the smartphone gets a larger and smoother display along with a bigger battery. We used it for a week to find out if it justifies the Rs 30,000 price tag. Here is our in-depth review of the Vivo T5 Pro.
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In This Article
Vivo T5 Pro Review: Design and Display
Box Contents
- Smartphone
- 90W Power adapter
- USB-A to USB-C cable
- Clear plastic cover
- SIM ejector
- Quick start guide
- Warranty card
The T5 Pro has a simple, no-nonsense design. The plastic back panel has a flat form factor and houses a vertical pill-shaped camera island in the top-left section. The LED flash is positioned right outside this cutout. The Vivo lettering is placed at the bottom. The smooth matte finish on the panel offers an excellent in-hand feel and keeps fingerprints and smudges at bay.
The plastic frame houses the volume rocker and the side button on its right edge. At the bottom lie the SIM tray, microphones, USB-C port, and primary speaker grille. The secondary speaker grille and noise-cancelling microphone are positioned up top. The smartphone is rated IP68/IP69 for dust and water resistance.
The 6.83-inch AMOLED display has a 144Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. It can reach 2,000 nits in High Brightness Mode, effectively overcoming harsh lighting conditions to display clear and lucid content. The bezels surrounding the screen are slim and uniform. The touch response is smooth as butter. The under-display fingerprint sensor does not leave any room for complaints either.
The viewing experience gets a clear upgrade on the T5 Pro. The 1,260 x 2,800p AMOLED panel is sharper than the 1,080 x 2,392p display of the T4 Pro. As a result, it produces sharper, crisper visuals with great details and punchy colours. The stereo speaker setup produces a rich audio output which is lush with details and low-end frequencies.
Vivo T5 Pro Review: Performance and Cameras
At the heart of the Vivo T5 Pro lies the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset. The smartphone comes in 3 RAM (LPDDR4X) and storage (UFS 3.1) options:
- 8GB + 128GB: Rs 29,999
- 8GB + 256GB: Rs 33,999
- 12GB + 256GB: Rs 39,999
We ran a couple of benchmark tests on the device. Here’s how it performed.
- AnTuTu 3D: 1,156,614
- Geekbench 6: 1,213 (single core) | 3,015 (multi-core)
Vivo T5 Pro’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 SoC may lie a notch below the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor that powered last year’s T4 Pro, but nothing separates the two devices when it comes to general performance. The T5 Pro goes through routine tasks like calling, texting, web browsing, media streaming, and navigation like a hot knife through butter. The UFS 3.1 storage ensures that apps don’t take a long time to load, while the LPDDR4X RAM juggles them efficiently without any hiccups.
The T5 Pro has a 144Hz refresh panel, but the frame rate for First-Person Shooter games like BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile is capped at 90fps (at low graphics). This isn’t a deal-breaker, but we would have liked the option of playing these titles at 120fps. The good news is that the smartphone delivers a smooth and consistent gameplay that’s free of unwanted stutters and frame drops. The 7,000mm² vapour chamber does a good job of managing the internal temperature of the device. We started feeling warmth along the back panel 20 minutes into our gaming session.
Software duties on the Vivo T5 Pro are handled by the Android 16-based OriginOS 6. There are a handful of bloatware apps on the device, but they can be completely uninstalled. Vivo has promised 3 major OS updates and 5 years of security patches for this phone.
OriginOS 6 builds on the foundation laid down by its predecessor, Funtouch OS. You get plenty of customisation options for the lock screen, home page, screen transitions, sliding effects, fingerprint icon, ambient lighting, charging animation, and more. The UI is vibrant and accessible. Browsing the device feels fluid and breezy.
Vivo doesn’t have a central AI hub for its Android skin yet, but it offers essential tools. You can use the AI Creation feature in the Notes app to generate rough drafts, emails, and other pieces of text. You also get basic summarisation and translation tools as part of the package. The photo editor in the native Albums app offers AI tools for erasing objects, boosting details, and adjusting the colours in your images.
The massive 9,020mAh Si/C battery pack holds enough juice to last an entire day of heavy use. You can rack up 6-7 hours of screen time and still go to bed with almost 20% charge left in the tank. If you’re more conservative with your usage, you can push the battery life to 1.5-2 days. The 90W power adapter provided in the box takes an hour to fully charge the phone.
The rear camera array comprises a 50MP Sony IMX882 main sensor (unchanged from the previous model) and a 2MP bokeh lens. The decision not to carry forward the 50MP periscope telephoto lens (3x) seems to be a cost-cutting measure.
The 50MP primary shooter captures clear and vibrant images in outdoor daylight conditions. These pictures pack all the important details and showcase tasteful colours without coming across as overprocessed. You can randomly pull this phone out of your pocket and take a good shot every time. In limited lighting conditions, the main camera relies on Night Mode to artificially illuminate the shot and resolve the noise. The colour accuracy of the resulting shots is brilliant.
We missed the telephoto lens while capturing portrait shots. While the main camera does a decent job of taking well-focused pictures, the portraits lack the tasteful bokeh effect to make them pop. The 2MP depth sensor doesn’t contribute a lot in this regard. On the other hand, the 32MP front-facing camera captures clear selfies without overprocessing the skin tone and texture of the subject. The front and rear cameras can record 4K videos at 30fps.
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Verdict
Given the current state of the midrange smartphone segment, the Vivo T5 Pro is an easy recommendation from us. It relies on its bright, smooth display and versatile main camera to charm the user. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset is able to handle routine tasks with ease. The AMOLED panel produces a great viewing experience, which is compounded by the sweet audio output from the dual speaker setup. The 2-day battery life offered by the 9,020mAh Si/C battery pack is the icing on the cake. Overall, the T5 Pro is a great deal at Rs 30,000.
Pros
- Bright display
- Nice design
- Big battery
Cons
- No ultrawide or telephoto lens
