Jan 21, 2016 05:46 PM
1789 Views
First of all I am thankful to one of my friend to lend me this phone Micromax yu yureka for one day by which I am able to write this review. As soon as I opened the box the only single word WOW uttered. The packaging looks like inspired by one plus one and this time the package provided by YU is good. The box is very plain; just brown cardboard with Yu and Cyanogen logos printed on all sides. It's almost as minimalist as Xiaomi's boxes, but nowhere near as slick. This brand is gradually lading towards an establishment for name of quality and workmanship.
Now let’s turn to the device, short specifications of the phone are as under:
5.5-inch 720p HD display
Cyanogenmod OS 11, built on Android 4.4.4 OS
1.5GHz octa-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 CPU
Adreno 405 GPU
2GB DDR3 RAM
16GB internal memory(12 GB available, can be expanded up to 32GB)
13MP AF rear camera(Exmor Sony CMOS sensor)
5MP front camera
GSM, GPRS, WCDMA and LTE networks
2, 500 mAh removable battery
This phone is developed by Yu Televentures, an all-new subsidiary company which will develop and sell smartphones aimed at the youth market. Yu will target tech-savvy but budget-conscious buyers, and is banking on catchy names and slogans with "attitude". There's no sign of Micromax anywhere on the phone or its packaging despite that brand's popularity, which means Yu really doesn't want to be associated with its parent company.
The Yu Yureka appears to be better constructed than most Micromax phones we've seen before. The front is smooth and free of markings other than an outline of the Home button printed beneath the screen. The Back and Menu buttons don't have printed icons but all three lights up when the screen is active. There isn't much room around the screen, and the edges are slightly raised to help prevent scratching.
The "moonstone grey" rear has an interesting texture - at first glance, it looks exactly like the rough sandpapery finish of the OnePlus One's rear, though in this case it's smooth and pleasant to hold. The camera and flash are tucked away in one corner and the only other thing to be seen is a small speaker grille running across the bottom.
The power and volume buttons are easily reachable on the sides and the Micro-USB and headset sockets are on the bottom and top respectively. Beneath the rear shell we find the removable battery, two Micro-SIM card slots and a microSD slot. One of the SIMs is hot swappable, but the other two slots can only be used if you pop the battery out.
From the above specifications, I would like to throw some light on Cyanogenmod OS. As soon as the phone is first boot in the hands gives a soft feel of Cynogenmod which is built on android kitkat 4.4.4 which is in my hand. CyanogenMod is developed as free and open source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added original and third-party code. Cyanogen OS looks good, and one of its strengths is that it can be customised from many aspects of its appearance. We weren't too happy with Yu's rather vanilla lockscreen, but it can be disabled in the settings and the default lockscreen with shortcuts and widgets replaced it. There is a row of settings shortcuts in the notifications shade, but there's also a button that takes you to another panel with more shortcuts.
Day-to-day usage is perfectly fine. The Yureka is highly polished, and honestly, it felt a lot better to hold and use than most Micromax phones that have come our way in the past year or even more. The screen was fairly legible in sunlight and though it isn't perfectly crisp, it's one of the better ones we've seen on such a low-priced phone.
Pros: 1) Call quality, 2) Battery life, 3) Good picture and video quality, 4) Good camera and picture quality, 5) Attractive price, 6) Customizable cynogenmod, 7) Bigger screen.
Cons: 1) Camera performance is not upto the mark in low light, 2) Not available in open market so one cannot see the device prior to buy, 3) No TV connectivity and 4) Low ppi resolution.
At the end, the verdict is that it may be used.
