Vivo T2 5G Price in India
Vivo T2 5G has been launched in two RAM and storage options. The base variant comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, which is priced at Rs 18,999 and the top model includes 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, which is priced at Rs 20,999.
Vivo T2 5G design and display
In terms of design, the T2 5G is quite different from its predecessor. The new smartphone comes with a completely different camera module and build. It gets a flat polycarbonate body and frame. There are two large rings at the back, one of which houses the primary camera sensor and the other ring houses the secondary camera sensor along with an LED flash. Vivo sent us the Nitro Blaze colour of the T2 5G and as we mentioned in our first impressions, this variant comes with a very shiny finish. Its special feature is that the back panel changes shade from blue to orange when light falls at different angles. A unique gradient pattern has been given on the panel. Fingerprints appear on the panel, but are not visible due to its finish. Of course, I personally found this color option to be quite premium. However, the choice in colors is completely personal. If you like the classic black color more, then you can choose its Velocity Blaze color.
The flat frame and slightly rounded edges make the smartphone easy to hold and at 172 grams and 7.8mm thick, there is no problem holding it in hand for long periods of time. The placement of the volume, power and lock/unlock buttons on the right side of the frame is also perfect, making them easy to reach. Overall, I really liked the in-hand feel of the Vivo T2 5G. While most of the competition tries to give the smartphone an expensive feel with hole-punch cutouts and thin bezels, the Vivo T2 5G takes the design back a few years with large side bezels, a thick chin and a waterdrop notch.
The Vivo T2 5G gets a 6.38-inch display and instead of the IPS panel included in the T1 5G, the new model has been upgraded to an AMOLED panel, which also offers better brightness levels than before. The company claims that the screen supports up to 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and 1300 nits of peak brightness. The display supports HDR10 with Widevine L1. While HDR playback is not available for content streaming apps, my experience streaming content on OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar was good. The display produces quite vibrant and punchy colors and also reproduces deep blacks well.
The screen supports refresh rates up to 90Hz and through the settings you can choose an option between the standard 60Hz and 90Hz. It also has a ‘smart switch’, which automatically adjusts the refresh rate between 60 and 90Hz according to the task being performed on the screen. I did not feel any lag on the screen in animations or transitions and while scrolling.
The good thing is that Vivo T2 5G still has a 3.5mm headphone jack for those who use wired earphones, but if you are one of those who watch content on speakers, then you will be a little disappointed here, as the smartphone only has one speaker, which is not loud enough for content streaming. The phone comes with AI-based face recognition and an in-display fingerprint scanner and both are accurate and fast in terms of authentication.
Vivo T2 5G specifications and software
The Vivo T2 5G gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which was also available in last year’s T1 5G. However, compared to the previous model, the new T2 5G supports 44W fast charging, but the battery capacity has been reduced from 5000mAh included in the predecessor to 4,500mAh. It includes a hybrid SIM slot, USB Type-C port, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6 and GPS. We have reviewed its 6GB RAM variant.
The Vivo T2 5G runs Funtouch OS 13 based on Android 13. Vivo has made several improvements to the Funtouch OS over the past few years, but even today the software comes loaded with bloatware. On first boot, I was faced with a number of native apps and third-party apps, of which you can remove third-party apps, but there was no option to disable many native apps. The good thing is that folders like Hot Apps and Hot Games can be disabled through the V-App store. Some native apps sent me four to five notifications throughout the day. One area where there has been improvement is RAM management. I noticed that most apps remained active in the background and did not load when switched back. However, while running games or heavy apps, the software deactivates some apps to keep RAM free. You will get plenty of customization options in this.
Vivo T2 5G performance and battery life
The Snapdragon 695 powered smartphone achieved an AnTuTu score of 410,346, while on Geekbench 6 it scored 869 in single-core test and 1,879 in multi-core test. In graphics benchmark GFX Bench’s T-Rex and Car Chase tests, the phone achieved 77fps and 17fps respectively. I did not face any performance issues in everyday usage. The phone handles almost all tasks quite well. Be it social media apps or games, my overall experience was quite smooth.
Talking about gaming, I played graphics intensive games like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Mobile, which took time to load initially, but the games ran quite smoothly on low and medium settings. Call of Duty: Mobile ran on ‘High’ graphics setting and ‘High’ frame rate combination by default, in which I did not face any problem even on long gaming. However, as soon as I switched to ‘Very High’ graphics and ‘Very High’ frame rate, I felt occasional stutter during gameplay, but it did not spoil the gaming experience much. The phone did not heat up even after about 30 minutes of gaming.
In terms of battery life, the Vivo T2 5G impressed me a lot. The smartphone gave about nine hours of screen-on time. Vivo claims that the smartphone can charge 60% in 25 minutes. In our tests, we found that the phone charged from 1-40 percent in 30 minutes and 1-100 percent in about 1 hour and 17 minutes using the adapter provided in the box. In our HD video battery loop test, the T2 5G lasted for 20 hours, 52 minutes, which is very good.
Vivo T2 5G Camera
The Vivo T2 5G gets a dual-camera setup at the back, which includes a 64-megapixel primary sensor equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS) support and a 2-megapixel portrait lens. For selfies, the phone has a 16-megapixel front camera. The phone does not have an ultra-wide camera.
Starting with the primary camera, its daylight performance is quite good. The exposure and color in the photos were accurate and there was plenty of detail. HDR also did its job well and both the subject and the background were well exposed even with direct light coming from behind and there was no lack of color and detail in the shots. The camera app also has a 64MP mode, which takes pictures in the full resolution of the sensor. The exposure and color in the shots taken in this mode were accurate, but there was a lack of details and noise when zoomed in too much on the photo.
Top to Bottom: Primary Camera
The low-light performance of the main sensor was also above average. Shots were well exposed and colours were accurate. The Night mode works to add details and exposure to photos and make them Instagram ready. The Night mode also reduces noise in darker parts of photos.
Top to Bottom: Primary Camera, Night Mode (Last)
Portrait mode with the rear camera also works well in both day and night conditions. The shots have a natural background blur. However, the camera sometimes failed to blur the edges of the subject. Also, I noticed a haze effect in a few shots in portrait mode, but this happened only once in 10. Skin tones were accurate in photos taken in portrait mode with the selfie camera. However, the camera smooths out the skin a bit on default settings, which you can adjust from the beauty mode settings. With the front camera too, edge detection was not accurate in portrait mode at times.
Portrait Mode
The rear main camera sensor of the Vivo T2 5G can record videos at up to 1080p (FHD) resolution at 60fps. Of course, most competitors, even the T2 5G’s sibling iQOO Z7 5G, also support 4K video recording. Without OIS, videos were quite shaky, but turning on OIS stabilized videos with cropping. Video results were good with better dynamic range and colour. The front camera can record videos at up to 1080p resolution at 30fps, which gave me good quality results.
Should you buy the Vivo T2 5G?
Priced below Rs 20,000 for the base variant, Vivo T2 5G This makes it a good competitor in its segment. The smartphone does not compromise much on performance in many parts. The ultra bright AMOLED display, 3.5mm earphone port, long battery backup and fast charging make the T2 5G an ideal smartphone for content streamers in this budget. Not only this, the device will not disappoint casual gamers who play graphics intensive games. The daylight performance of the rear camera setup is good and it can give you some good shots even at night. The selfie camera can also take selfies worth uploading directly to Instagram in good light. However, I missed an ultra-wide camera in the setup.
The lack of stereo speakers definitely puts the Vivo T2 5G a step behind the competition. However, it cannot be called a deal breaker considering the price. At the same time, if you are already familiar with FuntouchOS, then you will not feel any problem with the software. Overall, the Vivo T2 5G is definitely a good option to buy in this price range.
Update: The original version of the review said that the Vivo T2 5G has no IP rating, as this was not mentioned anywhere (brand site, press material, etc) at the time of publishing the review. This was also mentioned as a con in our ratings. Vivo has now informed us via email that the phone has received an IP54 rating. So the review has been updated.