Yu Yunique Review

After the success of Yureka and Yuphoria, Yu launched their next device, the Yu Yunique. The Yunique is a budget and affordable device priced Rs 4999 and comes with a 4.7 inch HD display and is powered by Snapdragon 410 Quad-core processor with 1GB RAM.

There is 8GB internal storage and it runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It also features 8MP rear camera with LED flash and front 2MP camera. Here is the detailed review of the phone.

Related Reading: Yu Yunique Unboxing

Here is the video review.

Design and Build:

Design wise, the Yu Yunique has striking similarities to the Yuphoria, especially with the placement of buttons, camera and logo. The power button is placed between the volume keys and has been given a chrome finish. The phone looks good in terms of design, but unlike the Yuphoria, the Yunique has a soft rubbery plastic rear panel, but it feels light and slim to use. The device itself is pretty compact with a 4.7 inch display.

The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top and the micro USB charging slot is placed at the bottom. The front panel has the Yu logo at the top along with camera and sensors. The three on-screen navigational buttons at the bottom of the 4.7 inch HD display. The rear panel also houses the camera unit which again has the Saturn ring design as Yu calls it. The LED flash is placed inside this ring. Below you can see the Yu logo and the speaker.

Overall, the design is pretty good in this price point, but the material finishing isn’t as impressive as the Yuphoria.

Display:

Not too many phone offer an HD display at Rs 5000 and this is one of the great aspect of the Yu Yunique. It comes with a 4.7 inch HD display with 1280 X 720 p resolution. While the colors look pretty decent, the sharpness levels are not as good as the Yuphoria. Similar to the Yuphoria, the Yunique also has average viewing angles and colors do tend to change when you tilt the display.

The touch response was again decent, but not as smooth as the Yuphoria. Overall, we would say this is a good display at this price point.

Software:

While all the Yu devices released so far had Cyanogen OS on top of Android, Yunique ships with another version. This time, Yu has not included Cyanogen, instead it has gone with a stock like experience and is pretty good overall. There aren’t any bloatwares included and it feels like stock experience.

The notification center is also implemented in the default Android way with no changes. The company claims that you can still install Cyanogen OS on Yunique.

Since Yunique does not ship with Cyanogen, there are quite a lot of missing aspects in the device. First and foremost, you miss out on a lot of customizations including the theme store which is missing on Yunique.

The phone comes with default set of apps including File manager, FM radio, YUniverse browser and also a video player. If you like the stock Android experience, you will love using the Yunique.

Performance:

Yu Yunique comes with a Snapdragon 410 Quad core processor coupled with 1GB RAM. This is the same processor powering the Yuphoria as well. The phone also comes with 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded, but there is no option to install apps directly onto the SD.

The performance of the device was fairly smooth and we did not encounter any lags in daily use. The multi-tasking was also pretty smooth without any issues. The gaming performance of the device is also decent with no major lags although there was occasional frame drops. The phone also had small hiccups when running multiple games in the background. But the overall performance was pretty good and satisfactory for a budget smartphone.

The call quality on the device was also good and we never experienced any call drops and signal strength was acceptable. The phone supports dual SIM cards with 4G LTE support. The speaker performance of the device was also above average and should be good for music lovers.

Camera:

While most of the phones in the sub 5k price point comes with 5MP camera, Yunique ships with an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera. While Yu devices have had Cyanogen camera UI, Yunique offers a completely new camera app. While the camera offers decent features including Redeye reduction, countdown timer, filters and modes, we feel the interface isn’t really user friendly. For example, there is no option to toggle flash in the main interface and you need to click at least two times to get to the menu.

It features HDR, Sports mode, candle light, night mode amongst others. The 8MP camera on the Yu Yunique is a decent performer and we feel for this price point it does get you some good photos. The colors and sharpness levels were pretty good, but the contrast seems to be on higher side. We did have an issue with auto focus, but we are not sure if it is an issue with our device alone. The phone can also record videos in full HD (1080) and the clarity was good.

Overall, we feel the camera is pretty good considering the budget pricing. Here are some samples taken with the phone.

Battery Life:

The phone comes with a 2000mAh battery which we feel is decent capacity for a budget smartphone. We tested the battery performance with browsing, social networking, calls, gaming and also a bit of camera usage and we ended up with a day of battery life. We would say the battery performance is pretty good on the device and it can easily last a day.

Verdict:

Priced at Rs 4999, the Yu Yunique is great value for money with HD display, decent camera, good software and performance. But where the Yunique lags behind is the after sales service. Although Yu devices can now be serviced at Micromax service centers, there are still issues which are not sorted out. We expect this to be sorted out soon. Overall, if you are not worried about this aspect, Yu Yunique is a good buy, but if you have additional 1k to spend, then you should also be considering the Redmi 2 priced Rs 5999.