Here we have the first(of many to follow) review of a smartphone from Tek-Talkz and it is of Yu Yureka. Wait a minute! Is there a smartphone brand called Yu?! This is the question that will pop up in the minds of everyone reading this post. Well, we aren’t blaming you. This is a very new brand that has been started by Micromax with a vision to empower users with technology or devices that lets them have unparalleled freedom to write their own rules.
In line with their vision, Yu has launched its first smartphone Yureka in India. The sales model follows the flash sales technique of Xiaomi, meaning which you will be able to buy the Yureka smartphone only on Amazon India via prior-registration.
Now, let’s take a detailed look at the smartphone which is being offered at the optimal price of INR 8,999 while packing some seriously good features.
Once you recieve the package from Amazon,you should verify that it contains the following:
Quick Reference Guide
Product Safety & Warranty Brochure
Wall charger
microUSB cable
Hands-free/Earphones
Screen protector (Yes, it comes With the screen protector!)
Design:
The Yureka has an impressive 5.5 inch 720p IPS screen that gives us a pixel density of 267 ppi and is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. On the front, we have capacitive buttons/keys (Recent apps, Home and Back) below the screen. Above the screen we have the ear-piece, a fixed focus 5 MP camera and sensors. On the right edge of the device there is the multi-functional Power/lock/unlock button while its left-side counterpart houses the volume rocker. There is a 13 MP auto-focus camera on the back accompanied by a LED flash and a noise-cancelling microphone. Below the LED flash we have the YU logo and on the bottom, is the speaker. The top-edge of the phone is pretty plain, save for the 3.5 mm audio jack. The bottom also has the now-usual micro-USB charging/syncing port along with the primary microphone. The phone weighs in at 155 g with the physical dimensions (154.8 x 78 x 6-8.8) mm and feels pretty solid and comfortable when held in hand. The back cover is made of a rubberized plastic which allows for a good grip on the phone when held in-hand.
Operating system and UI:
Now, at first blush, the Yureka is just another Android smartphone in the market. Yet, it is the first phone with the Cyanogen OS out-of-the-box after OnePlus One (and a limited edition Oppo N1). So, here we have Cyanogen OS 11 running on Android Kitkat 4.4.4 in Yureka which is almost similar to the 11s on the OnePlus One. For those of you unaware of Cyanogen OS, it is a custom build of Android which closely resembles the stock version ( – the one you would find on Nexus devices), but with a lot more flexibility in terms of customization and security features. The OnePlus One is a great mobile for its price, but most of the users would agree that the unique selling point of the mobile was its OS. Similarly Yu (Micromax) has made a clever move to have its devices run Cyanogen OS out-of-the-box, but at a relatively much lower price point. What the users get from this move is a smooth performance from the handset and guaranteed software updates from Cyanogen. Yu has promised that its devices would be getting software updates for atleast two years , courtesy of Cyanogen and team.
The Cyanogen OS on the phone has the usual theme engine where you can browse through various themes (both free and paid) and apply as a whole or just select the desired individual components like font, wallpapers, boot animation etc.You need to register or login using a Yu account to use the themes feature. We have applied the Hexo theme which changes the UI of Yureka to one similar to the default theme on the OnePlus One. Snapshots for the same are the ones you can see below.
As a whole, the UI on Yureka was pleasant and simple, as close as possible to the stock Android which is loved by all. There are also various themes for folks who would love to change the UI and customize the looks often.
Yureka’s Hardware :
The device is one of the first few phones that pack the latest 64-bit processors from Qualcomm. In the case of Yureka, it has the Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 64-bit Octa-core processor and Adreno 405 GPU. Out of the 8 Cortex-A53 cores, half are clocked at 1.7 GHz and the other half at 1.0 GHz. The Adreno 405 GPU is clocked at 550 MHz. On the memory side, we have 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage space which can be expanded up to 32 GB using microSD card.
Now, let’s see how Yu Yureka fared in some of the benchmark tests.
1. Quadrant benchmark test
2. Geekbench 3
3. Vellamo
Browser:
Multicore:
Metal:
As you can see, the Yureka clocks somewhere in the mid-band for most benchmarks and given the price it’s being sold at, we at Tek-Talkz were quite happy with the results. Now, benchmark scores are not the exact measure of performance when it comes to daily usage, but Yureka surprised us with its performance in the day to day tasks as well. Launching and switching apps were seamless, internet browsing was smooth and battery consumption was optimal.
Camera
As already mentioned, the Yu Yureka boasts a 13MP primary camera, which is a Sony IMX135 CMOS sensor with 5P lens architecture and F2.2 Aperture. There is also a 5MP secondary camera for “selfie fans”. The stock Cyanogen camera app provides some great features like live filters, exposure control and burst mode for photography. There is also time-lapse and Slo-Mo options for the video capture.
We found the overall performance of Yureka’s cameras to be pretty good even though this is a mid-range phone. Cyanogen’s camera app plays a huge part in aiding Sony’s camera sensor in Yureka resulting in neat pictures.
Call quality and Battery life
We have been using Yureka for a couple of weeks now and found the call quality to be good. The folks on the other side of the call were able to hear loud and clear most of the times. We use the term “most of the times”, because some people complained about not being able to hear us properly, but we think that could be due to signal strength issues at different areas in the city. Now, coming to battery life, we were really surprised at Yureka’s performance, given that it is powered by an Octa-core processor and holds only a 2500 mAh battery. We were easily able to run it through a whole day of usage with only a single full-charge of the battery . This usage includes Skype calls over Wi-fi, voice calls and a fair amount of browsing.
Conclusion
There have been quite a few devices launched in India recently with really impressive specs for the prices they were being offered at. But the Yureka stands out among all the devices in the less-than-10000-INR price range, and is clearly the winner when compared to smartphones like Redmi Note 4G, Alcatel Onetouch Flash and Asus Zenfone 5 which are all available in the same price range.
Pros: Cons:
Cyanogen OS (Updates guaranteed) Resolution is only 720p
Dual sim (4G + 3G) Device can be bought only through flash sales
Capable processor (Octa-core) + 2GB RAM
Good camera (13MP + 5MP)
Large screen with Gorilla Glass 3
