vivo launched its T4 5G smartphone in India last week as the successor to last year’s T3 5G. This has a better AMOLED display, faster Snapdragon 7s Gen3 SoC, and a huge 7300mAh battery. Is this the best phone in the market in the price range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Display, Hardware and Design |
| Camera |
| Software, UI and Apps |
| Fingerprint sensor |
| Music player and Multimedia |
| SIM and Connectivity |
| Performance and Benchmarks |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- vivo T4 8GB + 128GB version in Phantom Grey colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 90W Super FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The vivo T4 5G sports a 6.77-inch (2392 x 1080 pixels) FHD+ 20:9 aspect ratio quad-curved AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The screen has up to 5000 nits peak brightness and 1300 nits HBM. The colour output good as well since it has 1.07 billion colors.
The 120Hz refresh rate offers a smooth user experience, especially when you are scrolling through the UI and when gaming. You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz.
Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast of some pictures for more vivid display effects, says the company. There is 3840Hz PWM Dimming that is automatically activated when you are using the phone in low brightness. The screen has SCHOTT Xensation Up glass protection.
The phone has a new 32MP front camera inside the notch, compared to 16MP in the predecessor. There is an earpiece on the top edge which also works as a secondary speaker. You can see ultra-narrow bezels on the sides. The haptic feedback is decent.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the power button is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. There is nothing on the left side. The dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom.
The secondary microphone is present on the top and the IR blaster has been moved to the back of the phone inside the camera deco. The phone has a plastic frame, but comes with a matte finish so it doesn’t attract fingerprints.
It weighs 199 grams, which is impressive for a phone with a huge 7300mAh battery. The weight distribution is good.
The Phantom Grey that we have exudes modern elegance with deep metallic undertones that shift subtly in light, says the company. It also comes in Emerald Blaze blends rich green hues with a bold, futuristic edge. It has IP65 ratings for dust and splash resistance and comes with Military-grade durability (MIL-STD-810H).
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with 1/ 1.95″ Sony IMX882 sensor, f/1.79 aperture, OIS
- 2MP depth sensor with f/2.2 aperture
- 32MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS. It includes several features such as AR stickers, long exposure, 50MP mode, supermoon and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP rear camera, the final output is 12.5MP in size after pixel binning, and the front camera output is 32MP.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are good, and it is recommended to enable HDR option which automatically switches on HDR according to the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. The camera can focus quickly. The portrait mode has decent edge detection.
Low-light images are decent as well, but there is noise when you zoom in. The night mode is useful, thanks to the optimization. There is also supermoon mode with up to 20x zoom, compared to 10x in the normal mode. The supermoon option is a good addition, but you can’t compare it to flagships.
The new 32MP camera does a good in daylight, and the front camera portrait is decent as well, but it is not the best when it comes to low-light.
Check out some camera samples below.
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 30 fps from the rear and front camera, which the older mid-range vivo phones lacked. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in ultra option since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization. It doesn’t have HDR video recording or portrait video recording.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 15 with Funtouch OS 15 on top. It has Android security patch for April 2025. The phone will get 2 Android OS updates and 3 years of security updates, similar to older vivo T series phones.
Funtouch OS 15 brings vivo’s Priority Scheduling model for 15% faster app startup time, has zRAM compression algorithm, resulting in a 40% boost in compression speed, vivo’s Origin Animation for a more natural and intuitive user experience. The Lightning-Speed Engine offers faster app launches, and Aqua Dynamic Effect adds a visually pleasing touch to system interactions.
There is AI eraser and image cutouts, AI Super Document, AI Circle to Search, and AI Note assist. Live wallpapers are now seamless, and there is also customized call background. There is Link to Windows that enhances collaboration between your vivo device and PC.
Out of 8GB of LPDDR4X Ultra RAM about 7.4GB is usable, out of which 3GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 8GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage, 102.4GB is free out of the box.
Since the phone has an IR blaster, it comes with a Smart Remote app. Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Netflix and PhonePe. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. There is audio super resolution, and super audio features. Audio through the mono speakers is decent, the company could have offered stereo speakers since both the T3 had stereo speakers. Audio through the headphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR playback on YouTube and Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78 bands, and supports Airtel and Jio 5G out of the box. There is also dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11be (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS + GLONASS, but it lacks NFC support. It also has USB OTG support, and it has USB 2.0. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good.
The vivo T4’s body SAR is 0.873W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.990/Kg which is way under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 4nmMobile Platform, an upgrade compared to 7s Gen 2 used in the P3 Pro models. This has Octa-Core Qualcomm Kryo CPUs that has 1 x Kryo Prime CPUs (Cortex A720-based) at up to 2.5GHz, 3 x Kryo Performance CPUs (Cortex A720-based) at up to 2.4GHz, 4x Kryo Efficiency CPUs (Cortex A520-based) at up to 1.8GHz.
There is Adreno 810 GPU that decent gaming performance. There is no mention of vapor chamber cooling in the phone. You can play graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, but can’t expect sustained peak performance is high graphics mode. In BGMI HDR Extreme works.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 98.3% which is good. The temperature increased from 35 to 42 degrees, which is not much. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 7300mAh (typical) silicon-carbon battery, which is the biggest on a smartphone in India till date. It can easily last for more than a day with heavy use, thanks to the optimization.
I got close to 4 hours of screen on time with 2 days of use with about 50% battery remaining, so it should last me for over 3 days. This is mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use with Smart refresh rate. This is way better than other vivo phones.
Since the phone has support for 90W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about half an hour and up to 100% in an hour. You will have to enable fast charging option if you want to reduce the charging time, but the phone gets a bit hot.
There is also a bypass charging feature when gaming, so the charging current bypasses the battery to go straight to the motherboard, so it doesn’t affect the battery. It also has 7.5W reverse charging that lets you charge other devices with the phone.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 21,999, the vivo T4 is a good mid-ranger with a huge battery. The AMOLED screen is brilliant and the camera is decent in most cases. Ultra-wide camera is missing, and the stereo speakers have also gone, which might be a dealbreaker for some.
Pricing and availability
The vivo T4 is priced at Rs. 21,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 23,999 and the top-end 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 25,999.
It will be available through Flipkart, vivo India eStore and offline stores starting from April 29th from 12 noon. With Rs. 2000 bank discount, the effective starting price is Rs. 19,999.
Alternatives
You can also check the iQOO Z10 with similar specifications, if you are looking to buy it online. The Nothing Phone 3a is a good alternative in the price range.
Pros
- 120Hz curved AMOLED display is good
- Smooth performance
- Decent main camera in daylight
- Eye-catching design, IP65 ratings
- Excellent battery life with 90W fast charging
Cons
- Lacks stereo speakers
- No ultra-wide camera
- A lot of preloaded apps