Should the new Vivo T1 be your first 5G smartphone?
Vivo T1 5G price in India starts at Rs. 15,990
Vivo has introduced a new series in its portfolio, called the Series T, aimed at Gen Z consumers. With this new line, the company aims to focus on performance at affordable prices. The first smartphone in the new series is the Vivo T1 5G, and it features a new, sleek design. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC and boasts of a 120Hz refresh rate display. So, should the Gen Z crowd choose the Vivo T1 5G over the competition? I got to spend some time with this smartphone, and here are my first impressions.
The Vivo T1 5G price starts at Rs. 15,990 in India for the base variant which has 4GB of RAM. There are two more variants with 6GB and 8GB of RAM, and these are priced at Rs. 16,990 and Rs. 19,990 respectively. All three variants have 128GB of storage. Vivo offers two colour options, Rainbow Fantasy and Starlight Black. The company has announced a cashback offer at launch time for buyers who use certain banks.
The Vivo T1 5G has a 120Hz refresh rate display
The Vivo T1 5G has a new design with a flat back and flattened sides. Curved corners make it comfortable to hold. The Vivo T1 5G has a 6.58-inch full-HD+ IPS LCD display with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. There's a dewdrop notch with a 16-megapixel camera at the top, a thick chin at the bottom, and slim bezels on either side of the screen. The Vivo T1 5G has is 8.25mm thick and weighs 187g.
The power and volume buttons are on the right of the plastic frame, while the left side is completely blank. Vivo has integrated the fingerprint scanner into the power button, and has positioned it quite well. My finger rested on the scanner naturally while holding the device. On the bottom, the Vivo T1 5G has a 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and loudspeaker. The top of the phone has the SIM tray and the secondary microphone.
The dewdrop notch on the Vivo T1 5G looks a bit dated
You get a triple camera setup on the Vivo T1 5G. These's a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel depth camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. I have a Rainbow Fantasy unit of the Vivo T1 5G, and the rear panel has a sparkly, iridescent finish that shifts colours when light hits it.
Vivo has managed to pack in a 5,000mAh, battery which is commonly seen in this price range these days. There is support for 18W fast charging and the phone ships with a charger in the box. The Vivo T1 5G has a hybrid dual-SIM tray. It supports just two 5G bands, which seems like a potential downside compared to competing phones such as the Moto G71 5G (Review). The Vivo T1 5G also supports 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.1, dual-band Wi-Fi, and four satellite navigation systems.
Powering the Vivo T1 5G is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which I recently tested in the Moto G71 5G. Vivo has also implemented a virtual RAM feature which allows you to use part of the phone's storage as additional RAM. This can range from 1GB to 4GB depending on the variant you choose.
The triple camera setup on the Vivo T1 has a 50-megapixel primary camera
The Vivo T1 5G runs Funtouch OS 12 which is based on Android 12 . The interface feels fresh and there are some new features. I did find a lot of preinstalled apps on the device including Moj, Josh, MX Takatak, Cred, Share Chat, and Facebook. You can uninstall them to free up some storage space if needed.
With the T1 5G, Vivo has delivered a different design and a fairly good processor. The company thinks this will appeal to the Gen Z consumer shopping in this price range, particularly for its performance. The processor and 120Hz refresh rate could be good for gaming, but this phone lacks a wide-angle camera, its notch looks dated, and charging isn't as quick as it can be on other phones, so this isn't necessarily an all-rounder.
The sub-Rs.20,000 price segment is becoming a hotspot for budget 5G smartphones, and the Vivo T1 5G will face some feature-rich competition. Some of its direct competitors are the Moto G71 5G and the Redmi Note 11T 5G (Review). These phones offer good performance for the price and have the potential to sway buyers in their direction. So, should you pick the Vivo T1 5G instead or one of the alternatives? I'll answer that in detail in the full review, coming soon.
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