Vivo’s series T has been a reliable option for those seeking performance at a reasonable price point. However, with the T3 Ultra, the series breaks the 30 grand barrier for the first time. From a bird’s eye view, the Vivo T3 Ultra is just an evolution of the Vivo T3 Pro similar to Charizard evolving from Charmander and this makes it seem like Vivo has been inspired by Pokemon. But, is it enough to spew a Fire Blast on the competition? Let’s dive in and find out in this review.
Vivo T3 Ultra
Rs 31,999
What Is Good?
- Premium build quality and design
- Consistently speedy performance
- Smooth 120Hz refresh rate
- Great primary camera
- Indulging multimedia experience
What Is Bad?
- The ultra-wide needs tuning
- Bloatware apps
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Pricing and Availability in India
The Vivo T3 Ultra is available via Flipkart and Vivo’s online store. You can avail of a discount of Rs 3,000 using a selected credit or debit card. Here’s a look at the pricing:
| Variant | Price |
| 8GB+128GB | Rs 31,999 |
| 8GB+256GB | Rs 33,999 |
| 12GB+256GB | Rs 35,999 |
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Design and Build Quality
The Vivo T3 Ultra aptly fits you if you ever fancied using a premium smartphone but your pocket held you back from owning one. Vivo has emulated the design language of its flagship devices like the Vivo V40 Pro or even the Vivo X100 Pro to an extent and applied it to the T3 Ultra. To begin with, its weight distribution is incredible knowing that it weighs 192 grams while packing a 5500 mAh battery and yet lugging it around doesn’t put much weight on your wrist.
| Design | Specifications |
| Weight | 192g |
| Thickness | 7.58 mm |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Port and Button placements | Bottom: Primary microphone, USB port, SIM card tray and speaker grille
Right Side: Power button and volume buttons Top: Secondary speaker and microphone |
Aside from this, using the T3 Ultra is a delightful experience owing to its slim profile. If I have to nitpick, one-hand usage proved to be slightly challenging, as any smartphone with a tall aspect ratio and my small hands generally don’t get along well. Structurally speaking, the phone gives off this vibe that it is built to last. Worrying about its safety won’t be a thing for you.
Its design is equally relishing. You can catch this phone in Lunar Gray and Frost Green shades. I got the latter one for this review and seeing it for the first time instantly soothed me, since it is pleasant to look out while it exudes a sense of elegance. Another thing at play behind its elegance would be its finish. The glass back is glossy matte, which contributes to the smooth texture. Additionally, it resists almost all smudges; only a few persistent ones appear under the direct light.
The phone is IP68 rated for dust and water resistance, a rare sight in the sub-35k price segment.
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Display and Audio
The Vivo T3 Ultra features a curved display that is emerging as a conventional style in display visible across phones of all price ranges. Still, this style truly elevates its premium look.
Talking about its quality, I watched One Piece on Crunchyroll and my viewing experience was great. The colours were vibrant with on-point consistency whilst the picture quality was crisp. Out of the box, the T3 Ultra supports Widevine L1 certification signifying you can watch series or movies on streaming services like Netflix at their best quality. However, the phone strangely doesn’t have the support to play HDR content on Netflix, which is possible in its younger sibling the Vivo T3 Pro.
| Display | Specifications |
| Size | 6.78-inch |
| Type | AMOLED |
| Resolution | FHD+ (1260 x 2800) |
| Refresh rate | 120Hz |
| Peak brightness | Claimed: 4500 nits, Tested: 1984 nits |
| Minimum brightness | 21 nits |
| Display protection | Schott Glass |
In terms of brightness, it was comfortable scrolling across YouTube’s short feed outdoors. On rare occasions, tilting the screen slightly made sense since the sun’s reflection would pose a challenge in watching shorts. Indoors, I never felt the necessity to increase the brightness beyond 60 per cent as going beyond this mark meant I would get flashbanged in the middle of the night. The speakers of this phone were quite good. They get pretty loud and are adept at emitting crisp and clear audio even at 75 per cent making it great for binge-watching.
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Performance and Software
The T3 Ultra sees a huge improvement in the performance department over the T3 Pro, thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ processor. This puts it in the league of the Realme GT 6, OnePlus Nord 4 and POCO F6, at least in terms of raw power.
| Hardware | Specifications |
| Processor | MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ chipset |
| RAM | Up to 12GB LPDDR5X |
| Storage | Up to 256GB UFS 3.1 |
| Storage Test | 90536 |
| CPU Throttling Test | 68% of its max performance |
| Geekbench 6 | Multi-core: 5245, Single-core: 1826 |
| Software version | FuntouchOS based on Android 14 |
| Connectivity details | Dual SIM, Dual-band Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, USB 2.0, GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS,
Galileo, QZSS and NavIC |
In synthetic benchmarks, the phone managed to bag a respectable score. Yet, it was slightly bested by its competitor, the Realme GT 6T, despite costing similarly.
Synthetic benchmarks usually put an unrealistic workload on smartphones to test, something an average Joe would hardly encounter. I played Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI to gauge its performance in the real world. It never broke any sweat by running these two games at their maximum graphical settings, with the frame rates seldom dropping beyond the set margin. This trait makes the phone an ideal choice for gamers who desire to experience flagship-level gaming at a price they can afford. I want to highlight that the T3 Ultra can’t run BGMI on 90 FPS when possible in the Realme 13+ even though it has a relatively weaker chipset and costs significantly less. I hope Vivo works with BGMI to enable this mode so gamers can enjoy higher frame rates.
Keeping the whole gaming experience aside, the T3 Ultra never had a run-in with hiccups while running routine tasks consisting of social media surfing, calling, texting and binge-watching.
Another aspect that ensured the phone’s top-notch performance is its software. It runs on FuntouchOS 14, based on Android 14. The UI was tweaked brilliantly since each animation or transition was as effortless as Tom Cruise pulling off his stunts. What brought it down was bloatware and the notorious duo of hot apps and hot games. These are also accompanied by a few spam notifications.
Keeping up with the booming trend of AI in the smartphone landscape, it possesses the AI eraser and photo enhancement to iron out a few kinks from images. The AI eraser in my usage found to be quite handy as it erased a car from a particular image that was otherwise ruining the whole look of the photograph.
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Camera
The Vivo T3 Ultra shares a lot with the T3 Pro in terms of camera, with a few nuanced upgrades. The T3 Ultra’s primary camera has a slightly wider aperture, and has a slightly bigger pixel and sensor size. The ultrawide has been plucked straight from the Pro variant.
| Camera | Specifications |
| Primary Camera | 50-megapixel with OIS, ƒ/1.88 |
| Secondary Camera | 8-megapixel ultra-wide, ƒ/2.2 |
| Selfie Camera | 50-megapixel, ƒ/2.0 |
| Video recording capabilities | Up to 4K at 60 fps, video stabilisation: EIS/OIS |
At the time of reviewing this phone, there was a procession passing by my home. I clicked a few images of them to test how well these cameras work. My findings were that the primary camera has a knack for capturing detailed images in daylight. These images are well-saturated and have great HDR processing and adequate exposure. I also took them for a walk to inspect their performance further. With a single tap on the viewfinder, I managed to get a few images with natural bokeh. While it lacks a telephoto lens, the pictures taken by cropping in the primary lens turned out more than usable shots.
The ultra-wide, on the other hand, gave me a mixed-bag experience. Like the primary lens, you can click images with details from this lens. However, it had a tussle with white balance as there were times when it gave out images with warmer tones and some moments with incorrect tint. On top of that, these images also tended to have a weird sharpened look.
The low-light photography was satisfactory in my testing. The images clicked from the main camera generally retained almost all the details you could see. Moreover, they had close to accurate colours. Unlike the primary camera, the ultra-wide camera had a slightly rough time capturing details. This could have arisen due to its lower megapixel count. Additionally, its white balance issue was still prevalent in low-light settings since some images were rendered cooler than usual.
Portrait photography also had a great track record here. It has a flair for taking praiseworthy shots coupled with great edge detection in ample lighting. In low light, it continues outputting great images. For people who fancy taking selfies, it is skilled in taking a few great images, given the ample lighting available. While attempting to get a group selfie, I discovered that people farthest from the camera had some smoothening on their faces.
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Battery and Charging
The Vivo T3 Ultra packs a 5,500 mAh battery which lasts nearly an entire day of capturing moments, casual gaming, and an unending cycle of reel scrolling.
| Battery | Specifications |
| Battery | 5500mAh |
| Charging Adapter | 80W fast charging, charger-in-the-box |
| Charging Time | 50 minutes |
| PCMark battery test | 16 hours and 58 minutes |
The phone lasted for 16 hours and 58 minutes in the PCMark battery test, which is good. The reason behind this opinion is that its younger sibling, the Vivo T3 Pro, outlasted almost every phone in our testing, considering it is priced relatively less.
The 80-watt charger takes 50 minutes to juice the battery from 4% to 100%.
Vivo T3 Ultra Review: Verdict
The Vivo T3 Ultra offers impressive performance, a great primary camera and a terrific display combined with competent audio quality for a perfect binge-watching session. This phone’s attractive design and excellent build quality make it even more compelling.
Nonetheless, it has a few drawbacks that hold its amazing streak back: The ultra-wide camera requires a lot more attention. Furthermore, the UI will send you multiple spammy notifications throughout the day, coupled with bloatware.
To sum up, all these qualities make the Vivo T3 Ultra an ideal choice for folks searching for an upper-mid-range phone that can give them a feel of flagship smartphones.
If clean software is a priority above other features, the Moto Edge 50 Pro would be a perfect option for you.
