Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen some interesting releases in the under Rs 20,000 price category. Manufacturers like OnePlus, Redmi, Vivo, and iQOO are stepping up their game and putting out spec-heavy products in the category where most of India buys its smartphones. Vivo’s latest budget smartphone, T2, is a great addition to this category and shares a lot in common with its iQOO counterpart, the Z7 5G (review here).
We’ve been playing around with Vivo T2 5G for a couple of weeks now. There are a lot of things to like about this phone. Like the Z7, Vivo T2 also sports a brilliant AMOLED display. It is about time we started seeing some excellent displays in this category. The 64MP primary sensor along with Vivo’s signature image processing produces some good results too. But is this smartphone a no-brainer purchase at Rs 18,999? Find out in our Vivo T2 5G review.
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Vivo T2 5G review: Design and Display
Vivo T2 5G ships inside a compact white box with the smartphone, power adapter, USB Type-C charging cable, clear plastic case, SIM ejector tool, warranty card, and quick start guide inside. The smartphone is available in two colour variants – Nitro Blaze and Velocity Wave. We used the former for this review.
There are a few unique things about Vivo T2’s design. The plastic back reflects an orange tinge when light hits it at certain angles. There are two individual cutouts for the primary camera and the depth sensor + LED flash at the top left corner of the panel. Unlike Vivo T1 and iQOO Z7, there is no two-step camera panel to be found here. Instead, the panel has been replaced by a glossy section which feels nice in contrast to the matte-like texture on the rest of the back. The Vivo branding can be found at the bottom of the phone.
The flat plastic frame gives the phone a nice in-hand feel. The volume rocker keys and the power button on the right edge of the frame are firm and clicky. At the bottom of the frame, you will find the microphone, a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB Type-C port, and the speaker grille. Up top, you get the hybrid SIM tray and a secondary microphone. The left edge of the frame has been left keyless. Vivo T2 does not have a stereo speaker, which is a bit of a letdown.
The 6.38-inch AMOLED display on Vivo T2 has a refresh rate 90Hz and a peak brightness of 1,300 bits. The display supports HDR10. The refresh rate is set to 60Hz out of the box. You will need to change it to 90Hz from the display settings. Once that is done, the scrolling experience becomes much better. The touch response on this display is very good, something that is only matched by its iQOO counterpart. The under-display optical fingerprint scanner works as expected, but could have been placed a bit higher to match the natural thumb motion.
Watching video content on Vivo T2 is an absolute treat. The 1080 x 2400p AMOLED panel makes all the difference. Even though the display has HDR support, the Netflix app did not provide HDR playback for this device. Still, we were quite pleased with the richness and clarity of the images produced on screen. A stereo speaker would’ve elevated the overall viewing experience, but thankfully the 3.5mm headphone jack is still a thing in this price segment.
The bezels around the display get thicker on the chin but aren’t too bad to look at. The screen-to-body ratio on offer here is 84.1% which isn’t too bad. The selfie camera is housed in a waterdrop notch. A punch-hole cutout would’ve been more appreciated. Vivo hasn’t mentioned the IP rating for this phone but looking at the rubber gasket around the SIM tray, it appears that the T2 can handle minor water splashes.
Vivo T2 5G review: Performance and Cameras
Vivo T2 5G is available with two RAM options in India. The 6GB variant is priced at Rs 19,000 while the 8GB option fetches Rs 21,000. Both variants get fixed internal storage of 128GB. You can expand the storage to 1TB using a micro SD card.
Vivo has stuck to the Snapdragon 695 SoC for the T2. The smartphone comes with Android 13 out of the box with Funtouch 13 on top. The choice of Snapdragon 695 SoC isn’t too surprising. At the moment, this is a very popular chipset in this price category and produces some decent numbers. On Geekbench 6, Vivo T2 scored 894 points in the single-core test and 1,894 points in the multi-core test. Benchmarks aside, let’s take a look at how the smartphone fared through real-world tasks.
As we mentioned earlier, we used Vivo T2 as our primary driver for two weeks. Our daily usage consisted of checking emails, texting and video calling on WhatsApp, streaming content on YouTube and Netflix, an hour of gaming, light navigation, and general app usage. The smartphone did well to handle these tasks without breaking a sweat. To push the device to its limits, we loaded a dozen apps on it while carrying out a couple of tasks in the foreground. The drop in speed and touch response was significant. This kind of situation will rarely ever arise in everyday use, so you don’t have to worry about the phone’s performance dropping all of a sudden.
We played Call of Duty Mobile on Vivo T2 and were pleased with the results. The phone showed very minimal heating even after 30 minutes of gaming. Playing COD Mobile on the highest graphics was a fun experience, but we did experience the odd frame drop. Lowering the graphic settings fixed the issue, and the gameplay was smooth as ever. Stutters and frame drops were more frequent with graphic-intensive games like Apex Legends and Genshin Impact.
Funtouch 13 OS is a bit of a mixed bag for us. We like the customisation options for the fingerprint scanner, Always On Display, lock screen, and other gestures. The gaming options like Esports Mode, 4D game vibration, and autoplay with the screen off are also very cool. The layout of the app drawer and widget screen is aesthetically pleasing too. However, the sheer amount of bloatware on Vivo’s devices takes away from the overall software experience. You can uninstall the apps individually, but a cleaner experience out of the box would have been nicer.
Moving on, Vivo T2 5G is packed with a 4,500 mAh battery. The smartphone lasts an entire day with 5-6 hours of screen time. Even with an hour of gaming each day, we didn’t have any issues with the battery backup. We even had the refresh rate dialled up to 90Hz at all times. If you want to extend the battery life to more than a day, we’d suggest switching back to 60Hz and using the smartphone moderately. The 44W charger in the box can charge the smartphone to 50% in 25-30 minutes. It takes a little over an hour to fully juice up the phone.
The rear camera array on Vivo T2 comprises a 64MP primary shooter and a 2MP depth sensor. There is no ultrawide lens on offer. Up front, you get a 16MP selfie camera. The 64MP shooter bins down to 16MP by default, but you can access the 64MP mode from the camera app. The native camera app has some features like a Micro Movie Mode which lets you make short Reels on the phone with a range of effects and filters. The Dual View Mode lets you shoot videos from the front and rear cameras at the same time.
The 64MP primary lens delivers a decent performance in bright daylight conditions. The images were processed well and produced vibrant colours and well-detailed shadows. The subjects in the images were well exposed and the camera did a good job of incorporating all the essential details. We felt that the pictures could have been a little sharper, especially when lighting is not an issue. The white balance in daytime images felt a little off too. While we weren’t completely swept off our feet by this camera performance, we weren’t disappointed either.
Lowlight photography on Vivo T2 leaves a little more to be desired. Let’s talk about the good parts first. Even in the most challenging lighting, the smartphone does a good job of brightening the subject. But the images are on the softer side and give way to a lot of noise. Turning on the Night Mode gets rid of the noise, but the sharpness remains an issue.
The portrait shots we took on Vivo T2 displayed good background separation and an ideal depth effect. The results were satisfying; there’s nothing more you can ask from the 2MP depth sensor. The 16MP selfie camera takes well-rounded images in optimum lighting. There is very minimal colour correction at play here and the skin tones are mostly close to reality.
Unlike, iQOO Z7 the main camera on Vivo T2 cannot shoot in 4K. The 64MP camera can record videos in 720p and 1080p resolution at 60/30fps. The selfie camera can shoot 720p and 1080p videos at 30fps. You also get Optical Image Stabilisation for the 64MP rear camera, but only at 30fps.
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Verdict
At Rs 19,000, Vivo T2 5G is a solid purchase. If your major priorities are a good display, an attractive design, and a decent camera, the T2 is a no-brainer. The stunning AMOLED display will even entice gamers with its amazing touch sampling rate of 360Hz. The addition of a stereo speaker and an ultrawide lens would’ve massively elevated the appeal of this device. Nonetheless, Vivo T2 5G is still a good smartphone for everyday use.
Vivo T2 5G review: Pros
- Great Display
- Good form factor
- Decent performance
Vivo T2 5G review: Cons
- No stereo speaker
- Lacks an ultrawide lens
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