The Vivo T2 5G: A Solid Contender in the Sub-Rs. 20,000 Segment, But Can It Beat the Competition?
The Vivo T2 5G aims to make a splash in the competitive Indian smartphone market, offering a compelling package for less than Rs. 20,000. This latest offering from Vivo is an upgrade to the Vivo T1, bringing improvements to the camera setup, charging capabilities, and even the design and build. But with tough competitors such as the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G, Redmi Note 12 5G, Moto G73 5G, and its own sibling, the iQoo Z7 5G, can the Vivo T2 5G truly stand out?
While boasting several upgrades, the Vivo T2 5G still needs to address certain shortcomings. Read on to find out if this smartphone truly deserves a spot in your pocket.
Design and Display: A Polished Look with a Touch of Old School
The Vivo T2 5G embraces a bolder, more distinct design compared to its predecessor. Gone is the sleekness of the Vivo T1, replaced by a flat polycarbonate body and frame which exudes a more robust feel. This shift in design language is noticeable across the camera module, now sporting two prominent lenses, and the overall aesthetic.
We were sent the Nitro Blaze color variant, a beautiful blend of blue and orange hues that shift subtly with the angle of light, achieving a premium look and effectively masking fingerprints. If you prefer a classic look, the Velocity Blaze black option might be your choice.
Despite its new design, the Vivo T2 5G sticks to the familiar water-drop notch for the display, a feature not seen on most of its competitors who have embraced the more modern hole-punch cutout. The display itself is a 6.38-inch AMOLED panel, a significant upgrade from the T1’s IPS display, offering better brightness. It also boasts a 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and a claimed peak brightness of 1,300 nits, making it a pleasure for content consumption.
The HDR10 support with Widevine L1 certification ensures smooth and vibrant viewing, even for HD and above videos from streaming platforms. However, while streaming content from platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar, the HDR functionality wasn’t recognized.
The smart switch feature for the refresh rate automatically adjusts between 60Hz and 90Hz, ensuring a smooth experience regardless of the content. While the 3.5mm headphone jack is appreciated, the lack of stereo speakers could be a dealbreaker for audio enthusiasts.
The in-display fingerprint scanner and AI-based face recognition deliver seamless and accurate authentication, making for a smooth unlocking experience.
Specifications and Software: Familiar Power with Bloated UI
Under the hood, the Vivo T2 5G relies on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, the same processor used in the T1 5G. This chipset delivers reliable performance for everyday tasks and even handles casual games quite well.
The improvements lie in the 44W fast charging, which is a significant upgrade from the T1’s charging capabilities. However, the battery capacity has been reduced from 5,000mAh to 4,500mAh. This trade-off between fast charging and reduced battery capacity is a common trend in the smartphone industry.
The Vivo T2 5G runs Funtouch OS 13, based on Android 13, offering a familiar interface with several enhancements over previous iterations. However, the bane of Vivo’s software continues to be bloatware. Preloaded with a multitude of native and third-party apps, many of which cannot be disabled, Funtouch OS feels cluttered, despite the option to uninstall certain third-party apps.
While there seems to be some improvement in RAM management, with apps staying active in the background and not reloading, the notification spam from preloaded apps remains a significant nuisance, with several push notifications received daily.
Performance and Battery Life: Delivering on Expectations
The Vivo T2 5G delivers solid performance in everyday usage, easily handling social media browsing, multitasking, and other basic tasks. In benchmark tests, the 6GB RAM variant scored 410,346 points in AnTuTu, 869 in single-core Geekbench 6, and 1,879 in multi-core Geekbench 6. In the GFX Bench’s T-Rex and Car Chase tests, it achieved 77fps and 17fps respectively.
While gaming performance is mostly good, graphics-intensive games like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Mobile require adjusting settings to low and medium levels for a smooth experience. The T2 5G does get somewhat warm after prolonged gaming sessions, but the temperature remains manageable.
Where the Vivo T2 5G truly shines is battery life. We achieved around nine hours of screen-on time, and the 44W fast charging ensures a quick top-up, taking the phone from 1% to 40% in 30 minutes and reaching 100% in approximately 1 hour and 17 minutes. In our HD video battery loop test, the T2 5G lasted an impressive 20 hours and 52 minutes, solidifying its position as a leader in battery life for this segment.
Cameras: Solid Performance with a Missing Element
The Vivo T2 5G boasts a dual-camera setup, comprising a 64-megapixel primary sensor with OIS and a 2-megapixel portrait lens. While this setup offers decent results, the lack of an ultra-wide camera is a significant omission in this price range.
The daylight performance is quite good, capturing accurate exposure and colours with plentiful details. The HDR effectively balances both subject and background, even in backlit conditions. The 64MP mode, which captures photos at the native resolution of the sensor, also delivers accurate exposure and colors. However, zooming into the photos revealed weaker details and noticeable noise.
Low-light performance is also above average, with well-exposed photos and accurate colours. The Night Mode effectively improves details, exposure, and reduces noise in darker areas of the photos.
The portrait mode offers a pleasing natural background blur, but the camera struggled to capture subject edges accurately at times, resulting in blur-like effects on the subject.
The front camera delivers acceptable quality for Instagram photos in good lighting conditions, with accurate skin tones. However, the default settings tend to smooth skin textures slightly, a feature adjustable within the beauty mode settings. Even with the front camera, edge detection in portrait mode wasn’t consistently accurate.
Video recording capabilities are limited to 1080p at 60fps on the rear camera, while most competitors offer 4K video recording. The lack of 4K recording is a significant drawback, especially considering the increasing trend towards higher-resolution content. While the stabilization feature helps in smoothing out motion, it also crops the frame. Video quality is good, with decent dynamic range and colors. The front camera can record videos at 1080p 30fps, delivering decent quality footage.
Verdict: A Solid Choice with a few Drawbacks
The Vivo T2 5G offers a compelling value proposition at its base variant price of under Rs. 20,000. The phone excels in key areas like the bright AMOLED display, 3.5mm headphone jack, long battery life, and fast charging, which make it an ideal choice for content consumption. The camera performance is respectable, capturing decent photos both during the day and at night. The selfie camera also delivers suitable quality for social media in good lighting conditions. However, the omission of an ultra-wide camera is a significant drawback.
The lack of stereo speakers, bloated software with notification spam, and the absence of 4K video recording are some key areas where the T2 5G falls short compared to its competitors.
Ultimately, the Vivo T2 5G presents a solid option in this price range if you don’t mind the bloated nature of Funtouch OS. However, if these shortcomings are dealbreakers for you, exploring other options in the market might be a better idea.
