VERDICT
The YU Yunicorn is a commendable effort by Micromax’s Sub brand YU. While it does offer good performance, a great display, stellar build quality and fantastic battery life, the uninspired design, slow and mediocre camera and disappointing gaming performance let it down.
PROS:
- Good display
- Stellar build quality
- Fantastic battery life
- Great day to day performance
- Fast and snappy fingerprint sensor
CONS:
- Camera is mediocre and very slow
- Unoriginal and bulky design
- Disappointing Gaming performance
The device, touted as a 'flagship killer' by the company, is made up of an aluminum, magnesium and manganese alloy and is available on
What's most interesting about the smartphone however, is not the hardware, but the software inside. The smartphone runs a custom version of
Does Yu's flagship smartphone have what it takes to compete against big-weights like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, The Lenovo Zuk Z1, The One Plus X and the recently reviewed Motorola Moto G4 Plus? Let's find out.
Specifications
Display
: 5.5-inch fullHD IPS display OS : YU's own 'Android On Steroids' UI running atop Android 5.1 LollipopCPU
: MediaTek Helio P10 processor RAM : 4GBStorage
: 32GB internal storage, microSD support Cameras : 13MP rear camera (dual LED flash), 5MP front cameraConnectivity
: Wi-Fi, 3G/4G/2G, GPS, Bluetooth, microUSB 2.0 Battery : 4,000mAhDimensions
: 75.4x153.3x8.5 mm Weight : 172gramsPrice
: Rs 12,999 (Rs 14,999 after one month of launch)Design
The
The textured non removable back looks and feels very premium, and the device's construction doesn't belie its price tag. The back is very slippery though, and falls out of the hand rather easily.
The smartphone is quite heavy and thick at 172 grams and 8.5mm respectively, which feels out of place in a market obsessed with making devices as slim as possible. The Yunicorn is very wide as well, which, along with the weight and thickness really makes the device difficult to hold with one hand.
While the device is built beautifully and looks elegant, the originality of the design is a big question mark. The phone just doesn't look fresh, with several design cues taken from the iPhone 6s and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 amongst others.
The YU Yunicorn features a fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button, which, as is usual these days, is very fast and accurate. The device has a microUSB 2.0 port, the microphone and a single speaker unit on the bottom, the power and volume keys on the left, the hybrid SIM/microSD card tray on the right and a headphone jack along with the secondary noise cancelling microphone at the top.
The ergonomics of the power and volume keys are spot on, with the thumb landing naturally on the power key. The buttons themselves however are a bit hard and could have offered more tactile feedback. The fingerprint sensor, as mentioned before, is integrated into the home button. Micromax has also opted for capacitive buttons for home, back and recent apps. This is a little confusing at first, as there is both a physical home button as well as a capacitive home button.
The single external speaker unit is very loud, but sounds very muddy and shrill at full volume. The earpiece is much better though, and calls made through the phone could be heard loud and clear.
The lack of USB Type C can be seen both as a pro, as well as a con. While USB Type C would have made the phone future proof, it has not still not achieved widespread acceptance and the number of devices featuring USB Type C are still extremely low.
Overall, the look and feel of the smartphone is a huge step up from previous Micromax devices, though a bit of originality in the design will be much appreciated next time around.
Display
The Yu Yunicorn offers a very serviceable and capable 5.5-inch full HD IPS display, with vivid colors, good viewing angles and adequate brightness levels. The display is protected by protective glass made by Nippon Electric Glass, which in my testing seemed as durable as Gorilla Glass 3.
These days, there is very little to differentiate amongst smartphone displays in the lower mid-range market, with the Yunicorn offering much of the same. While the smartphone's display wont wow you anytime soon, it is more than adequate for the price.
The borders on the side of the screen are very slim, however, circa the iPhone 6 and 6S, the vertical bezels are huge, which along with the overall heft of the device, make the phone feel overtly bulky. For example, the device is thicker, taller and wider than the Moto G4 Plus, which offers the same 5.5-inch display.
Hardware/Performance
Yu's 'flagship beater' is powered by the MediaTek Helio P10 processor coupled with 4GB of RAM, a 4,000mAh battery and 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up-to 128GB via a microSD card.
Amongst the competition, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 offers a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, 16/32 GB of storage, a 5.5-inch full HD display, microSD support and 3GB RAM while the The Moto G4 Plus packs a 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor paired with a 550 MHz Adreno 405 GPU, microSD card support and either 2GB RAM + 16GB internal storage or 3GB RAM + 32GB internal storage, depending on the variant.
The YU Yunicorn crunches through day to day tasks with ease. The MediaTek Helio P10 processor along with the mammoth 4GB RAM ensure that day to day use is smooth and relatively lag free.
The device handles casual use such as web browsing, scrolling through photos and lists, taking pictures etc. without any issues. Although, it must be warned that you should not expect flagship levels of performance and some random lag and stutters do tend to creep in over extended usage.
The device does well when it comes to multimedia playback as well, playing back full HD videos without any problem. It was also able to play most high bitrate music and video files.
Create column charts
However, the Yunicorn is mediocre when it comes to gaming performance. Games like Subway Surfers, Traffic Rider and Temple Run 2, while not unplayable by any means, experience some stutters and frame rate drops. Expectedly, intensive games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Real racing 3 suffer much worse, and could only be played after reducing the graphic levels. This is a bit disappointing, considering the hype around the device and the company's claims of the phone being able to challenge flagships.
On the bright side, the device doesn't suffer from any heating issues, even while charging or under intensive use. The smartphone also doesn't suffer from memory management issues and the 4GB of RAM ensures stress free multitasking, with the device not bogging down with even a multitude of applications open in the background.
The camera though, is slow to focus and process images.
Software/Connectivity
YU smartphones originally had an exclusive partnership with Cyanogen, but the YU Yunicorn comes with a customized version of Android Lollipop 5.1, called "Android on Steroids', which according to the company, was built from the ground up in order to ensure a smooth and lag free experience.
While "Android On steroids" is much closer to stock than Micromax's own IndusOS, I would still any day prefer a stock android experience over this 'enhanced' skin by YU.
While the UI is not heavily skinned and is much closer to stock than other intrusive skins, there are still some changes under the hood. The App drawer list all the applications alphabetically, instead of placing the most used applications on top and the UI has a custom set of icons that frankly, look rather ugly, with a squaricle shape. Thankfully, Micromax has promised an upgrade to Marshmallow soon, which will come with a new design for the icons and app drawer based on user feedback.
In addition, the device also comes with the second generation of YU's 'Around Yu' software that offers an integrated wallet, doctors on demand, and other content services.
The Yu Wallet is powered by UDIO and allows you to recharge your smartphone, DTH or data cards. Yu also offers doctors' assistance straight from your smartphone in a partnership with Lyberate.
Around Yu 2.0 also offers the ability to book cab services and Micromax has collaborated with Uber, Ola and Ixigo for the same. The device also features YU's Mi Media cloud storage solution, which offers unlimited cloud storage for media files.
All of these value added features couldn't be tested as they are not available currently and will be offered through an over the air update.
What is rather disappointing about the current build of YU's new custom UI is the amount of redundant applications on board. The device comes with three different applications for browsing the web out of the box - Chrome, the default browser and a YUniverse app which offers data saving features. For music as well, there's 'Music by Gaana', the Google Play music app and an old version of Google's music application. These are the type of things that mar the overall experience, and make me wish companies would just let their devices come with stock Android.
On the connectivity front, the YU Yunicorn is a dualSIM device that supports 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n and GPS. What is disappointing is the lack of NFC, which means that the fingerprint scanner cannot be used for Android Pay. While this may not be an issue for most, I find it a big letdown considering the fact that NFC is becoming more and more common and is no longer just a niche feature limited to flagships
Camera
The YU Yunicorn has a 13MP rear camera with a five-element lens and electronic image stabilization and a 5MP front camera.
The images produced with the rear camera are mediocre at best, with vivid colors but a lot of noise and jagged edges. There is a visible lack of detail, which is exacerbated in low light situations.
Macro shots are decent, but the lens really struggles to focus on close objects. Night shots are best avoided, with a lot of noise and fuzziness.
Video is strictly average as well, with a slow motion mode limited to just 640p. The front camera is good enough for social media selfies, but not for much else.
However, Image quality aside, the biggest problem with the camera is just how slow it is to focus and take photos. It takes more than a second to focus properly and after which, it takes a further second or two to process the image. Even navigating through the app is a pain, and menus take a long time to load. All this results in an incredibly frustrating camera experience.
Here are some camera samples -
Battery life
Yu Yunicorn comes with a 4,000mAh battery that the company claims can last upto 4 days of mixed use. In actuality, while the device lasted nowhere near YU's tall claims, I easily got around a day and a half's use from a single charge, and that too under relatively heavy use, so I am not really complaining.
The standby time is also great, with the device not losing more than 2-3% when left alone all night without being connected to a charger.
Overall, the battery life of the device is fantastic. If all you use your phone for is checking e-mail and browsing the web, you can expect the phone to last 2 days between charges with ease.
What is missing though is quick charging support as seen in the Moto G4 Plus, which is a boon in crunch situations.
Likes
The YU Yunicorn features a great display, stellar build quality, a fast and accurate fingerprint sensor, great day to day performance and a fantastic battery life
Dislikes
The "Android on Steroids' UI doesn't offer much, the camera is mediocre and extremely slow, the design is unoriginal and bulky and the gaming performance is not up-to the mark.
Verdict
The YU Yunicorn is a commendable effort by Micromax's Sub brand YU. While it does offer a great display, stellar build quality, fantastic battery life and good day to day performance, the uninspired and hefty design, infuriatingly slow and mediocre camera and disappointing gaming performance stop it from being a threat to proper flagships.
At Rs 12,999 the Yu Yunicorn is not a bad buy at any means. However, when the price goes up to 14,999 after a month, it will face tough competition from the likes of the Moto G4 Plus and the One Plus X.
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