Vivo T2 5G Review: Best Phone Under Rs. 20,000?

The Vivo T2 5G is the company’s latest mainstream offering in India, whose base variant has been launched for less than Rs. 20,000. The smartphone is an upgrade to the Vivo T1 (Review), which launched in 2021. Some of the changes include the camera setup, charging capability, and the design and build. The direct competition to the Vivo T2 5G is the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G, Redmi Note 12 5G, Moto G73 5G, and its own cousin, the iQoo Z7 5G.

Has Vivo delivered enough upgrades in the latest model, and should you be considering it in the sub-Rs. 20,000 price range? Here’s our review.

Vivo T2 5G price in India

The Vivo T2 5G has been launched in two configurations in India. The base variant offers 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage which costs Rs. 18,999. The top variant has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which costs Rs. 20,999.

Vivo T2 5G design and display

In terms of design, the Vivo T2 5G is quite different from its predecessor. The new smartphone features a completely different camera module, and gets a flat polycarbonate body and frame. The two big camera modules at the back houses the primary camera and the secondary 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 article, it has a glossy finish and a dual-tone effect (blue to orange) when light falls on it at different angles. It also get a unique gradient pattern which hides fingerprints well. I personally found this colour option to look quite premium. If you prefer the classic black colour, then you can choose the Velocity Blaze option.

The flat frame and slightly rounded edges of the Vivo T2 5G makes the smartphone easy to hold. With a weight of 172g and a thickness of 7.8mm, even extensive usage is comfortable. The placement of the volume and power buttons on the right side of the frame is good and the buttons are easy to reach. Overall, I quite like the in-hand feel of the T2 5G.

The Vivo T2 5G’s Nitro Blaze colour is quite eye-catching

While most of the competition these days opt for a hole-punch cutout in the display in this segment, the Vivo T2 5G looks a bit dated with its relatively thick display bezels, prominent chin and a water-drop notch. Vivo doesn’t mention this anywhere (at least at the time of publishing this review) but it has confirmed to Gadgets 360 that the T2 5G has an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance. 

The Vivo T2 5G uses a 6.38-inch AMOLED display, which is a step up from the IPS panel seen in the T1 5G. The new model also offers better brightness levels than before. It has a 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, and a claimed peak brightness of 1,300 nits. The display supports HDR10 with the Widevine L1 certification for HD and above video playback through streaming apps. I had a good experience streaming content from OTT platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, although these apps didn’t seem to detect the display’s HDR capability. Colours are vibrant and punchy, and back levels are deep.

The Vivo T2 5G has a ‘smart switch’ function for the refresh rate, which automatically adjusts it between 60Hz and 90Hz depending on the content on the screen. I didn’t face any lag in animations, transitions or even while scrolling through menus.

The Vivo T2 5G retains the 3.5mm headphone jack for those who still prefer using wired earphones. However, if you are someone who prefers using the speaker, then you might be disappointed with the lack of stereo speakers. The single speaker in the T2 5G is not loud enough for enjoying content. The phone features an AI-based face recognition and in-display fingerprint scanner, and both are accurate and quick in terms of authentication.

The Vivo T2 5G has a 3.5mm headphone jack

Vivo T2 5G specifications and software

The Vivo T2 5G uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which was also available on last year’s T1 5G. The T2 5G supports 44W fast charging compared to the previous model, but the battery capacity has been reduced to 4,500mAh (from 5,000mAh). This phone also features a hybrid-SIM slot, USB Type-C port, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6 and GPS.

The Vivo T2 5G runs on Funtouch OS 13 which is based on Android 13. Vivo has made several improvements to Funtouch OS over the years, but the software is still loaded with plenty of bloatware. You get many native and third-party apps by default, out of which, you can uninstall the latter but the option to disable many of the native apps is not available. The good news is that folders such as Hot Apps and Hot Games can be disabled through the V-App Store.

Even with many native apps preloaded, I noticed that the notification spam from these apps has reduced a bit, but I would still get around four to five push notifications daily which was annoying. One area where there seems to have been an improvement is in RAM management. I noticed that most of the previously opened apps remained active in the background and didn’t reload when I went back to them.

Vivo T2 5G performance and battery life

We tested the 6GB RAM variant of the Vivo T2 5G, which returned an AnTuTu score of 410,346 points. The phone scored 869 and 1,879 points in the single-core and multi-core tests of Geekbench 6. In graphics benchmark GFX Bench’s T-Rex and Car Chase tests, the phone managed 77fps and 17fps respectively. I did not face any performance issues with everyday usage. The phone handles almost all basic tasks very well, be it social media apps or casual games.

The Vivo T2 5G has a bright and vivid AMOLED display

Talking about gaming, I tried some graphics intensive games such as Genshin Impact and Call of Duty: Mobile, which initially took a while to load but ran quite well at low and medium settings. Call of Duty: Mobile ran well at the ‘High’ graphics setting and ‘High’ framerate combination by default. However, as soon as I increased the settings to ‘Very High’ graphics and ‘Very High’ frame rate, I did notice occasional stutters during gameplay. The Vivo T2 5G also did not heat up much even after about 30 minutes of gaming.

The Vivo T2 5G impressed me a lot in terms of battery life. It delivered about nine hours of screen-on time. Vivo claims that the smartphone can be charged up to 60 percent in 25 minutes. In our tests, we found that the phone charged from one to 40 percent in 30 minutes, and up to 100 percent in about 1 hour, 17 minutes via the adapter provided in the box. In our HD video battery loop test, the T2 5G managed to run for 20 hours, 52 minutes, which is very good.

Vivo T2 5G cameras

The Vivo T2 5G gets a dual-camera setup at the back, which includes a 64-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS), and a 2-megapixel portrait lens. The phone has a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies. However, it does not have an ultra-wide camera.

Daylight performance of the main camera is quite good. The exposure and colours in photos were accurate and the details were also plentiful. HDR did its job and exposed both the subject and background well even in backlit shots. A ‘64MP’ mode is also available in the camera app, which takes pictures at the native resolution of the sensor. Exposure and colours were accurate in the photos taken in this mode, but details were weaker and noise was noticeable when zooming into the photo.

Vivo T2 5G main camera samples (tap to see full size)

Low-light performance of the main sensor was also above average. Photos were properly exposed and the colours were accurate. Night mode worked well to add details, improve exposure, and reduce noise in the darker parts of the photos.

Portrait mode with the rear camera also worked well in both day and night conditions. Natural background blur is available in shots. However, at times the camera failed to capture the edges of the subject accurately. I did notice a blur-like effect on the subject in some shots, but it was rare.

Vivo T2 5G cameras samples (top to bottom): Low-light landscape, Night Mode (tap to see full size)

Skin tones were accurate in pictures taken in portrait mode with the selfie camera. However, at the default settings, the camera smoothens skin textures slightly, but this can be adjusted in the beauty mode settings. Even with the front camera, edge detection was not accurate at times in portrait mode.

The rear main camera sensor of the Vivo T2 5G can record videos at up to 1080p resolution at 60fps. Most competitors, including iQoo Z7 55, supports 4K video recording. Videos taken with the T2 5G were quite shaky without stabilisation, but with it enabled, motion was smoother but with some crop to the frame. Video quality was good with decent dynamic range and colours. The front camera can record videos at 1080p 30fps, which resulted in decent quality footage.

Verdict

The sub-Rs. 20,000 price tag for the base variant makes the Vivo T2 5G a good competitor in its segment. The smartphone does not compromise much on performance for its class and things such as the bright AMOLED display, 3.5mm headphone port, long battery backup, and fast charging makes T2 5G an ideal smartphone for content consumption for this budget. The rear camera setup is good and it can capture some decent looking shots in day and at night. The selfie camera also manages suitable quality photos for Instagram, in good lighting conditions. However, I missed an ultra-wide camera in the setup.

Some of the things that put the T2 5G a step behind the competition is the lack of stereo speakers. Overall, the Vivo T2 5G is a good option in this price range, if you don’t mind the bloated nature of Funtouch OS.