Review: YU Yutopia

Photographs by Priyanka Parashar

Micromax has been trying to shed its budget phonemaker’s tag for a while now. Devices like Canvas Knight (Rs.19,999, now selling at Rs.17,199) and Sliver 5 (Rs.17,999) have not really been able to make the mark though. However, its sub brand, YU Televentures, now has a phone called the Yutopia, priced at Rs.24,999, which is set to take on some serious competition, particularly from the OnePlus 2.

Design: Solid but not very handy

With an all-metal exterior, the YU Yutopia at 160g feels really solid but a bit bulky in the hand. The curve around the edges creates a bulge, giving the phone a slightly bigger appearance. When put next to the OnePlus 2, which offers a bigger 5.5-inch display, it has almost similar dimensions. The other problem with the design is the finish which is too slippery. Also, the camera module on the back panel is big and protrudes like the Lumia 830. It makes the phone a bit heavier at the top. The back panel has a finger print scanner which provides an extra layer of security. However, it is not very accurate and is unresponsive at times. The OnePlus 2 weighs 175g but has a coarse sandstone finish which feels more reassuring in the hand.

Software: Plain yet customisable Android

The phone runs Android 5.1 with Cyanogen CM12 which at first looks similar to the stock android interface, but actually gives the user a lot more control over the software. This is something along the lines of custom UIs, but without the clutter that accompanies most of them. CM12 is easy to use and less bloated in comparison. The user gets to change themes and icons which is something that stock android doesn’t allow.

There is a new feature called ‘Around YU’—a location-based service that opens when you swipe in from the left side of the homescreen. Just type in what you want to eat, buy, or enter the destination for a flight or bus journey and it will show all the options in your location.

In comparison, the OnePlus 2 runs Android 5.1 with OnePlus’ own Oxygen OS. It also offers a plain clutter-free user interface but not that many customizations, since the inspiration is clearly from the clean Google Now interface.

Display: Sharp and vivid

YU Yutopia comes with a 5.2-inch LCD display with screen resolution of 2560x1440p. It is the only smartphone in this range to pack in that many pixels in a screen. It offers sharper visuals, bright colours and flawless legibility while viewing it from odd angles and under bright lights. YU has used Corning’s Concore Gorilla glass which is fused with the display and not added on top of it. This keeps the display thinner, and is designed to make the content pop out better.

The OnePlus 2 offers a bigger 5.5-inch display, with screen resolution of 1920x1080p. Technically the Yutopia has an edge over the OnePlus 2 in terms of sharpness and resolution, but when it comes to watching movies and reading, OnePlus’s bigger screen size is more comfortable than the former’s 5.2-inch display.

Performance: Powerful but a little unresponsive at times

The Yu Yutopia is powered by the top of the line Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor, and paired with 4GB RAM. The phone ran most apps and graphic intensive games without any hint of sluggishness, and there is no heating felt on the back panel. This is rather creditable for a processor which is notorious for heating issues in a lot of phones, and that is perhaps because this is the version v2.1 of the processor, with a few under-the-hood changes including a lower clock speed.

During testing, the display felt a bit unresponsive at times, especially the Android navigation keys which have been integrated within the display. The phone offers 32GB of storage which is expandable to another 128GB via a micro SD card.

The OnePlus is powered by an earlier variant of the same Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB RAM. Although it is quite powerful, it tends to heat up when stressed. It offers higher internal storage (64GB), but there is no memory card slot.

Battery: Average battery

The phone has a 3,000mAh battery which can give a day’s backup if you are not a power user and mostly use it for reading, web browsing, social networking and some video play back. In comparison, the OnePlus 2 comes with a bigger 3,500mA battery but could muster no more than a day’s backup due to the heating issues which lead to quicker discharge.

Camera: Sharp and accurate

The Yutopia comes with a 21-megapixel camera and Cyanogen’s own camera app. On the face of it, this looks very similar to Google’s camera app, with limited features and tweaks available to the user. Nevertheless, the picture quality is sharp. It is particularly good when it comes to reproducing details and that is applicable for both daytime and nighttime shots. The 8-megapixel front camera is sharp and can easily accommodate 4 to 5 people in a selfie.

Though the OnePlus 2 has a 13-megapixel camera, it is pretty much at par with the Yutopia’s camera in terms of picture quality and low-light results.

Verdict

The Yu Yutopia is actually the first ever phone made by an Indian company to sport the “flagship killer” tag, and also the first India-made phone to use the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip. Despite a rather solid spec sheet, the Yutopia doesn’t really leave a lasting impression, either in terms of the design or the user experience. It just seems to have an ingredient missing.

The OnePlus 2, despite the technical limitation has a better design, a bigger display and more internal storage.

Abhijit Ahaskar

Topics: yu yutopiaYU Yutopia reviewyu televenturesmicromaxcanvas sliver 5