The cycle Xiaomi followed for its Redmi 2 and Redmi 2 Prime is reversed here, as Yu Televentures had earlier launched the Yu Yuphoria, but now has come up with Yu Yunique, which is not very different from the Yuphoria, except for a few compromises in the internals. There’s only a lot of positives to find here, if Cyanogen has been able to fix whatever issues were seen on the Yuphoria.
Build quality to begin with, is excellent. We were already amazed by the build of Yuphoria, with its metal framing on the side, and the inspired-but-good-looking Saturn ring around the camera on the back, which house the LED flash. Yunique maintains the same language for design, except that the metal is gone from the side.
The Yu Yunique does hold the tag for being the most affordable 4G smartphone that carries a HD display with it. There are a couple other smartphones available in the similar pricing, namely the Phicomm Energy 653 and the Lenovo A2010. But, the partnership with Cyanogen has always been advantageous for Yu, as the interface offers a lot of customisation.
Full lamination technology is what Yu calls for the display manufacturing, and the HD display comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The display does look quite good, and being scratch resistant, it is more than what most of the competition offers in that price point.
What’s to be stressed here, is the fact that the Yunique comes with 4G connectivity supporting 1800 and 2300 MHz bands in India, and it has a 64-bit quad-core chipset that the Yuphoria came with.
For the initial little time we used the device, the rear camera is much comparable to the one on Yu Yuphoria, though we are still inclined towards the Redmi 2 with the camera quality in a similar price range. The 2-megapixel front-facing shooter has only one thing to boast about – the 83-degree view for wide-angle selfies.
Four points that differ the Yunique and Yuphoria are as follows.
- The metallic frame is gone, and it is a plastic frame that Yunique comes with, continued by a plastic back
- The RAM is reduced to 1GB from the 2GB of Yuphoria
- The internal storage is changed from 16GB to 8GB
- There is reduction in the battery capacity, as the Yunique has a 2000 mAh battery
It is interesting that Yu is offering the Yunique with Android 5.1 Lollipop stock Android ROM, and there is a choice for the user to switch to Cyanogen OS 12.1 that is based on Android 5.1, and this version is now running on Yu’s previous smartphones.
As the smartphone market gets filled with brands coming from different parts of the world and investing in the large Indian market, Yu still has enough power to hold itself strong in the budget smartphone segment, where every brand has a decently good smartphone. Yunique is offered with specs that promise a good life, but it isn’t only about the specs but the usability, including the 4G connectivity, a design that looks and feels good, and the stock Android, where a new smartphone user doesn’t feel lost.
