Vivo T1 5G Review – Good Specs At Right Pricing

Vivo has decided to launch a new series at the perfect moment. The new T Series is aimed at millennials of Generation Z. But then again, what isn’t? Let’s just say it’s a budget smartphone with a few nice features in the sub-20,000 category, which has been dominated by Xiaomi, Realme, Infinix, and others. Vivo T1 5G is a phone that is quite slim. Vivo claims it’s the slimmest 5G smartphone under 20,000 rupees, and it very well could be. Vivo T1 is a powerful 5G phone with a Snapdragon 695 processor, a 120Hz display, 50MP triple cameras, and a big 5,000mAh battery. It takes more than one and a half hours to fully charge the battery with the 18W charger.

It’s one of the most well spec’d smartphones in this price range, and it appears to be a terrific deal on paper to me. On the other hand, specifications only tell one side of the story. Is this new Vivo smartphone suitable for gamers, especially if you spend all day playing BGMI or other similar games? Let’s take a closer look at the Vivo T1 5G to see if it’s a smart buy.

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The basic Vivo T1 5G variant with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage is priced at Rs. 15,990 in India. The 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB storage variants are available for Rs. 16,990 and Rs. 19,990, respectively. Vivo T1 is available in two colours: Rainbow Fantasy and Starlight Black.

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Users will get the following items inside the box of Vivo T1 5G:

• Vivo T1 device
• Type-C to USB Cable
• 18W Adapter
• Sim Eject Tool
• Protective Case
• Protective Film (Applied)
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the Vivo T1 5G, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.58 inches IPS LCD
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
• RAM & ROM: 8GB RAM 128GB Storage, 6GB RAM 128GB Storage, 4GB RAM 128GB Storage
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 50MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 187 grams
• Dimensions: 164 x 75.8 x 8.2 mm

Vivo T1 5G boasts a fresh design language that includes flat sides. The curved edges don’t bite into your palms, and the smartphone is easy to hold. With a thickness of 8.25mm and a weight of 187g, Vivo T1 5G is indeed a slim phone. It has a large display featuring a dewdrop notch, which seems outdated in comparison to other smartphones in this category with hole-punch displays. The sides have thin bezels, whereas the chin is wide. The back of the Vivo phone is completely flat. The camera module is located in the upper left corner and does not protrude much. Despite the fact that the phone is made of plastic, it does not seem to be dull or cheap. It has a smooth and velvety finish.

The volume and power buttons are on the right side of the T1 5G, which has a plastic frame. The fingerprint scanner has been built into the power button, making it simple to unlock this phone. The SIM card tray and secondary microphone are on the top, while the left is empty. Vivo T1 5G has a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB Type-C port, a speaker grille, and the primary microphone on the bottom.

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Moving on to the display, it’s a little disheartening to find an LCD display when competitors in this price range, like the Redmi Note 11S, offer an AMOLED display. However, the brand has attempted to compensate for this by including a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Playing high-graphic multiplayer games is fluid and responsive thanks to the high refresh rate. Vivo T1 5G also has Widevine L1 support, which means you’ll be able to stream FHD+ content via OTT apps. Since the phone lacks stereo speakers, it is unable to provide an immersive viewing experience, which may frustrate potential buyers who frequently watch videos on their smartphones from YouTube or somewhere else.

The display has a peak brightness of 460 nits, making it suitable for outdoor use. To top it off, Vivo T1 5G lacks any type of Gorilla Glass, Panda Glass, or Dragontrail Glass protection, which is a disappointment, especially given its asking price. On the plus side, once you start using the smartphone on a daily basis, you won’t notice these issues. Overall, I believe Vivo should have chosen an AMOLED panel over an LCD panel, even if a 60Hz AMOLED would’ve been preferable.

Vivo T1 5G is driven by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset, which also powers competitors like the Moto G71 5G (Review). The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC is a strong processor capable of handling practically any mobile game without difficulty. The name of a chipset can be confusing but be assured that the Snapdragon 695 processor is somewhat more powerful than the Snapdragon 750G. The chipset is combined with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Vivo T1 comes with Extended RAM 2.0, which lets you add up to 4GB of RAM to the device. In my experience, the Vivo T1 offers sufficient performance but nothing outstanding.

I could simply switch between various apps, and the device never really had to kill an application in the background because of my usage. The apps were quick to load. On the Vivo T1 5G, I tested a few games, including Genshin Impact, Call of Duty: Mobile, and BGMI, and they all ran smoothly on high to medium settings. To be more precise, I launched Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) with the default graphics and frame rate settings of “HD” and “high.” At these settings, the game was playable, and I didn’t notice any major heating issues while playing.

Just to be clear, my gaming experience with the Vivo T1 was above average at best. When running COD: Mobile and BGMI at their highest settings, there were notable frame drops, minor lags, and jitter. Lowering the graphic quality improved my experience because frame drops were no longer as frequent.

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Vivo T1 5G runs on Android 12 based on Funtouch OS 12 out of the box, which is a welcome relief given how many budget smartphones ship with Android 11. The user interface is simple to use and looks fresh. Android 12 features like the privacy dashboard are now accessible, allowing you to check which applications have access to the mic, camera, location, and other information. When the camera or microphone has been used by any application, a green or orange dot will appear in the upper-right corner of the display. You can also restrict location access to only when the app is running. Vivo has also included a screen recording protection feature, which prevents apps from collecting screenshots or video while you type a password.

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While all of this is fantastic, Vivo T1 5G does come preloaded with a bunch of bloatware, including Moj, ShareChat, Cred, MX Takatak, Josh, and Facebook. Thankfully, these apps can be completely uninstalled. There’s also an Ultra Game mode that jumps in as you launch a game. It has a handy voice changer feature, as well as the option to reject incoming notifications and lock the brightness of the screen.

Vivo T1 5G has a triple camera setup on the back. It is equipped with a 50MP primary camera, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. It sports a 16MP front-facing camera for selfies. Although it doesn’t come with OIS support, the front and back cameras can both take videos at 1080p@30fps. The camera app is easy and simple to use.

Vivo T1’s main camera does an amazing job at taking detailed, bright, and colourful photos. With all of the textures and brightness, the photographs come out quite sharp. In my experience, the T1’s main camera is capable of capturing Instagram-worthy shots without the need for any heavy photo editing. Portraits showed good edge detection, although the phone struggled at times to separate the person from the background.

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In low light, the images from the primary camera are packed with noise and challenge to identify details and textures. The night mode isn’t much help, although it does help to suppress noise in some situations. One thing to keep in mind is that the Vivo T1 5G’s 4GB RAM version does not have the night mode, which is a disappointment for those seeking to buy the base model. The macro camera’s photographs are hardly usable, but if there is enough light hitting on the object, they seem decent.

The 16MP front camera delivers good selfies, with a variety of styles, filters, and lighting effects to select from. Selfie photos have a soft blur in the background and good separation between the subject and the background.

Vivo has also introduced a lot of filters to the stock camera app, and you can use them directly and share them on social media without having to use any third-party apps.

Vivo T1 5G comes with a big 5,000 mAh battery that can last all day in moderate to heavy use. Depending on what you’re doing, the battery can provide up to five to six hours of screen time. My usage comprised small sessions of gaming, social media browsing, watching YouTube videos, listening to music, and receiving calls. Even then, I still had plenty of battery life to last me through the next day.

However, I was disappointed by its support for 18W charging. Vivo T1 5G takes even more than 1.5 hours to fully charge the device from 0 to 100 per cent. A 30W or 33W fast charging support would have been great, but Vivo did some cost-cutting here as well.

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Vivo T1 5G lacks stereo speakers; however, the single bottom-firing speaker does the job. You also get a secondary mic for noise cancellation. Because this is a budget smartphone, Vivo has included a 3.5mm headphone jack. Overall, the audio quality is good, and the call quality is also decent.

There are just two 5G bands supported, compared to the 13 bands on the Moto G71 5G. It also supports dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.1, and dual-band Wi-Fi. The fingerprint sensor is quick and accurate, and it functions similarly to a standard side-mounted fingerprint sensor. Face unlock also worked effectively during my review period.

Pros

• 120Hz refresh rate display 
• UFS 3.1 storage 
• 5G chipset 
• Multi-layer cooling system 
• Large battery 
• Excellent fast charging 

Cons

• No NFC support 
• No ultra-wide-angle lens
• No Glass protection 
• No dust and water resistance