Vivo T2 5G First Impressions: Worthy Upgrades?

The Vivo T2 5G is officially available in India and is priced under Rs. 20,000. The base variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs. 18,999, which is the one we have. The higher variant with the same amount of storage comes with 8GB of RAM and this is priced at Rs. 20,999. The company also launched a more affordable model called the Vivo T2x 5G which starts at Rs. 12,999.

This sub-Rs. 20,000 price segment is currently quite competitive and filled with a plethora of options. Compared to its predecessor, the Vivo T1 5G (Review), the Vivo T2 5G offers a few upgrades including a better camera setup, faster charging, and a compact design. Here’s our first impressions of the phone.

The Vivo T2 5G has a polycarbonate body which contributes to the lightweight design. The phone weighs about 172g, making it about 10g lighter than its predecessor. It is also slimmer than the Vivo T1 at 7.8mm. The Vivo T2 5G offers a good in-hand feel with its flat frame design and curved corners. The smartphone comes in two colour options — Nitro Blaze and Velocity Wave.

Vivo sent us the Nitro Blaze variant of the Vivo T2 5G which has a glossy finish, but looks premium. The rear panel has a gradient finish with shades of sunset colours which is visible when light falls on it at certain angles. If this is too flashy for you, you can check out the Velocity Wave trim which has a more sober black colour.

The Vivo T2 5G features a single speaker at the bottom which is fairly loud and offers a decent multimedia experience indoors. However, head outdoors in any noisy environment and you would immediately miss a dual-speaker setup. A USB Type-C port is available at the bottom, next to which is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Vivo T2 5G looks good but this waterdrop notch gives it slightly dated look

The right side of the phone includes the power and volume buttons, which are easy to reach when using it with one hand. On the top, there is a hybrid SIM slot, which supports dual-SIM cards or a single SIM with a microSD card.

The Vivo T2 5G features a 6.38-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a 1080×2400-pixel resolution. The screen supports a 90Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate. The company claims that the display offers up to 1,300 nits of peak brightness. There is a small waterdrop notch at the top of the display which makes the phone look a bit dated. The top and side bezels are fairly narrow but the chin is quite thick in comparison. The handset gets an in-display fingerprint scanner and support for AI-based face recognition.

The Vivo T2 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which also powered the Vivo T1 and  several other smartphones such as the newly-launched OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G (Review). This SoC can also be found in some older phones, such as the iQoo Z6 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G (Review), etc. The T2 5G runs on Funtouch OS 13 which is based on Android 13. 

The dual camera modules on the Vivo T2 5G look imposing, but it still misses an ultra-wide camera

The back of the Vivo T2 5G gets two circular camera cutouts for the dual-camera setup. It features a 64-megapixel primary sensor with support for optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The phone has a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calling. There is no ultra-wide camera. 

The battery capacity of the Vivo T2 5G is now smaller at 4,500mAh, compared to 5,000mAh on the T1. However, it gets support for faster 44W charging and the adapter is bundled in the box. Vivo claims that the phone can be charged from zero to 50 percent in just 25 minutes.

Should you consider buying the new Vivo T2 5G, or would you be better off with its alternatives? Find out in our full review coming soon.