Micromax Yu Yureka
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]icromax is India’s top national smartphone manufacturer and has a lot of popular products on offer. However, it has a bit of a reputation for selling low-quality products also it understands there are people who would simply never consider a Micromax phone over, say, a Samsung or a Sony. There are also tons of other businesses with very similar products, and any of them could readily become as successful.
The company now wants products which will stand out and have strong individual identities – and that means making some daring moves. The end result is Yu Televentures, an all-new subsidiary company that will develop and sell smartphones targeted at the youth market, who are budget-conscious. Interestingly, these phones is only going to be available on the internet. The company additionally talks up an “ecosystem of connected devices” and a “differentiated user experience”.
Cheesy name apart, Yu is apparently gunning for the slot previously occupied by the 3G Xiaomi Redmi Note (Review | Pictures). Specifications, look and the Yureka’s size are fairly equally matched with those of Xiaomi’s big screen offering, meaning they are not unimpressive contemplating both apparatus’ low price tags.
[nextpage title=”Design”]Design (Rating – 8/10)
There is no indication of Micromax anywhere about its packaging or the item despite that brand’s popularity, which means Yu actually does not need to be connected with its parent company. The carton is quite simple; only brown cardboard with Cyanogen symbols and Yu printed on all sides. It is nearly as minimalist as Xiaomi’s cartons, but nowhere near as sleek.
Yu Yureka itself isn’t light or particularly slender yet it does seem better built than most Micromax devices we have found before. The front is smooth and free of mark other than the printed outer line for Home key beneath the screen. The Menu and Back buttons are not indicated with marking, but and the Back do not have printed icons but all three lights up when the display is on. There isn’t much room around the display, and the edges are somewhat lifted to help prevent scratching.
The “moonstone gray” back has a fascinating feel – at first glance, it looks just like the rough sandpapery finish of the OnePlus One’s back, though in this situation it is smooth and enjoyable to hold. For some reason, Yu cheapens the whole apparatus and chose to go using a light blue printed symbol which seems quite strange. Flash and the camera are tucked away in a single corner as well as the other thing that is sole to be seen is a tiny loudspeaker grille running over the bottom.
The volume and power buttons can be reachable on the sides, as well as headset outlet and microUSB are at top and bottom respectively. Beneath the casing at back you’ll locate the removable battery, two Micro-SIM card slots as well as a microSD slot. One SIM is hot swappable, whereas, other two slots can only be utilized if you pop the battery out.
[nextpage title=”Features”]Features (Rating – 8/10)
Being the primary cellphone in the Yu brand, the Yureka comes with remarkable specs. It is powered by the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset with an octa-core 1.5GHz processor and Adreno 405 GPU clocked at 550MHz. It packs 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB on-board storage of which 12.8GB is accessible to the user. The storage can be further expanded via microSD, if needed. Yureka supports dual-SIM functionality, which is an plus point, as Indian users are fan of dual SIM devices. Also, the device comes with Cat.4 4G LTE with TDD 2300MHz and FDD 1800MHz bands.
In terms of Camera, the Yureka features a 13 megapixel rear shooter and a 5 megapixel camera performs front duties. It runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS with the Cyanogen 11 ROM.
The Yureka box contains a data cable, earphones, power adapter, and a battery.
[nextpage title=”Software”]Software (Rating – 8.5/10)
The USP of the Yu Yureka is the CyanogenMod 11 ROM to the Android 4.4 platform. As a result of this, the cellphone provides you with multiple ways to customise your telephone. Micromax has contained a few of its own specific programs on the mobile for example AudioFX which lets you customise the sound output signal, ScreenCast lets you record your navigations that are on screen using the recording where you have touched the display at the same time etc enrolling. YUniverse is Yureka’s own browser that’s essentially a customised form of the Opera browser. Apart from more themes, there was not substantially distinct from the CM11 OS on One Plus One regarding the user experience.
Interestingly, the Yureka has a dedicated application called Themes, which allows you to choose themes based on your preferences. Unlike other Android devices, you will not be required to download full version of theme, thanks to Themes App, which helps you to choose individual facets from different themes. For example, if one likes font on Y theme, he can simply download the fonts from Y theme and so on. That means, you are free to customize your own unique theme. Beneath the Component section, you can customize the status bar, icons, fonts, controls and boot animations etc.
The Settings menu allows you to tweak the apparatus farther. It’s possible for you to wake the device having a double tap up or get it go to sleep – tapping on the status bar, change to off-screen animation, add widgets on lock screen etc. You can also customize your notification panel and quick settings Menu. In a nutshell, the CyanogenMod 11 OS gives you ample chance to tweak your apparatus just how you want.
Performance (Rating – 8.5/10)
The Micromax Yu Yureka sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset with an octa-core processor, which keeps most undertakings running in a lightning rate. The prompt rivals to the Yu Yureka are the ASUS Zenfone 5 along with the Redmi Note 3G/4G. In the AnTuTu benchmark it scores better than both these devices. In Geekbench 3, the Yureka scored 654 as opposed to 435 on the Redmi Note 4G and 441 on the Redmi Note 3G. The evaluation results are below.
The Yureka’s touch gives a smooth feel and we did not notice any slowdown. Call quality is good and did not experienced call drop or any other glitch. One things we noticed that screen unlocks with its own while we keep it in trouser pocket, especially while wearing jeans. Hence, it would be mandatory to assign pattern or password to prevent unlocking inadvertently.
Yureka can manage popular games like Fruit Ninja, RipTide GP2, Shadowgun easily. In the movie mode, the default video player can play most of the formats, though we found some glitch on playing total high definition videos.
The bundled earphones performs exceptionally, if not playing on high volume. It seems quality has been compromised in low frequency play mode. Build quality is quite good and comfortable while using. If may be noted that if you are habitant to yank out the jack with wire, it would decrease the performance for sure.
[nextpage title=”Display”]Display (Rating – 7/10)
Micromax Yu Yureka sports a 5.5-inch High Definition screen and thankfully IPS panel offers commendable viewing angles. As a result of the High Definition resolution spread out over the 5.5-inches, you get a 267ppi pixel density, which Won’t give sharpest output while reading something with small sized font. While using WhatsApp, we detected a small level of blotch of the text. Sun legibility is adequate, once the brightness levels over 70 percent.
Although there was not any noticeable backlight bleeding, the black levels are not that great. Seeing videos having dim scenes a little bit of an issue are made by the reflective surface. Simply make sure you would not have some light sources behind you when viewing videos and have cleaned the display.
[nextpage title=”Camera”]Camera (Rating – 7/10)
Yureka features a 13 megapixel shooter at rear along with a 5 megapixel selfie camera. The sunlight shots are quite good and packed with detail. We enjoyed the reality the camera manages to keep chromatic aberrations in order. The many shooting filters are reachable by simply swiping over the camera display. It isn’t a great deal of concern though, the AF is a bit on the slower side. HDR mode seems to wash out the picture slightly. Noise is observable just on pixel peeping, although quality is very beneficial to on-line sharing. Shooting in low-light conditions is poor. The picture lacks detail and chroma noise is very notable.
It features full Hight Definition video recording and the output is noticeably good, provided that you’re not panning the phone while recording. The mic performs an excellent job at picking up sound details.
Battery (Rating – 7/10)
The Yu Yureka owns a 2,500 mAh battery, which isn’t much taking into consideration the power-consuming 5.5-inch high definition screen. The device includes a 1A charger and there’s no rapid-charging mode, so anticipate charging times to be on the larger side. Also, the apparatus doesn’t pack any featured program for power saving operation. However, you are not limited to, and can install the third party power saver applications.
On the initial days, the battery discharge rate was upsetting, which needed one full charge in a day. But after using over a week, the battery performance improved notably, which now lasts nearly 10-12 hours of continue use, which includes audio, video playback, internet surfing, calls, and messaging.
[nextpage title=”Verdict”]Verdict (Overall Rating – 8/10)
Micromax’s on-line enterprise, Yu, is off to an excellent beginning using the Yureka, because of the appealing selling price. The closest rival to Yureka is Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G, which is still INR 1,000 costlier than this. With the CyanogenMod 11 OS, the Yureka offers innumerable possibilities of tweaking the apparatus. Even with the same Operating System, it would be unfair to compare with OnePlus One, which is high-end device with higher specs and priced at INR 21,999.
The Yureka isn’t the special who won’t have drawbacks and the leader among them being a not-so-sharp display in addition to inferior low light photography. The build quality is just OK. However, one could compromises these, if needs an affordable phablet, which stands out from the low-cost Android phablets in the market.
Micromax hasn’t used some of its own branding, therefore it ought to be intriguing to find out the Yu brand pans out. More variety has been confirmed by the Micromax with Yu brand in future devices. It’s going to take the on-line-only course for selling all future Yu products and Yureka. With the alluring cost of Rs 8,999, Yu certainly will bring lots of youthful buyers.
Full Specification