Vivo has suddenly chosen to kick off a new series. The T Series (not to be confused with anything else we know) is meant for ‘aspirational gen Z millennials’. But then, what isn’t? Let’s just say it’s a budget phone that offers a few nice things in the below 20k segment where Xiaomi, Realme, Infinix and others have been ruling the roost. 

The Vivo T1 5G is a relatively slim phone. Vivo says it’s the slimmest 5G phone under Rs 20,000 - and it may well be. You wouldn’t guess it actually has a 5,000mAh battery. With 18W charging, it takes no less than two hours to charge. But it does have the advantage of being able to be used to charge another device.

The phone is somewhat flat and boxy and has a good hand-feel despite being quite big. It has a plastic back and frame, but you really wouldn’t know it. Many of the V Series phones have a similar look with blue-to-pink sunset hues. The front of course is glass and someone forgot which year we’re in because the display has a (sit down for this) notch. I greeted this undulation with deep sorrow as the LCD screen is otherwise really rather nice. It has great brightness and colours and a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. There’s only a single speaker, but it’s quite loud. Surprisingly you do get a headphone jack. The fingerprint sensor is on the power button on the side. 

Capable chipset: This phone runs on the 6nm Snapdragon 695 5G chipset. There are two 5G bands. Oh well. Performance is pretty good and everything runs quite smooth without heating up or soaking up the battery. The benchmark scores support that as well. Though some reviews found online report occasional lag, I didn’t unearth any such thing. Simple gaming was also fine. The haptic feedback was just adequate. It isn’t recommended for intensive gaming.

Our review unit has 8GB RAM and 4GB expandable virtual RAM. Storage is 128GB. You also get a 4GB RAM and a 6GB RAM variant all with 128GB. Prices are Rs 15,990, Rs 16,990 and Rs 19,990. These are actually really well-priced for what is offered. 

It’s nice that the TI works with Android 12 out of the box. You have FunTouch OS on top of that and it’s largely fine, except for a bunch of unwanted apps. The usual Moj, Takatak, and other hairy undesirables. I often come across people who neither know how to delete apps nor download them, so such apps are a nuisance. There are a few annoying notifications around too, especially from the browser which I don’t even remember opening. 

The T1’s main camera is a 50MP, working with an f/1.8 aperture. It’s rather a nicer camera than you’ll typically get at this price. Colour is true to life with perhaps a little punch and there’s adequate detail. As ever, daylight pics are the ones that really come out good while indoor shots need the lights to be turned up though there is a night mode that fills an image with a bit of light and puts in sharpness with software. The primary has a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro along for the ride. The front camera is a 16MP that by default smoothers out skin and flatters you. This is a good set of everyday casual camera, except that there’s no ultra-wide lens where there easily could have been. 

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