With the competition in the 4G market rising, YU Televentures, a subsidiary of Micromax, had recently launched the YU Yunique at just Rs. 4999 and called it the most affordable 4G LTE smartphone. We had the device for review and we find how good it really is.
Hardware and Design:
The YU Yunique seems more like the mini version of the YU Yuphoria with strikingly similar design. The front display measure 4.7 inches making it very comfortable to hold and use. However, the display is very shiny and reflective and tends to retain fingerprints.
The 2 MP front facing camera, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and the earpiece grill with notification LED at placed at the top with the YU branding at the center.
The back has a soft rubberized matte finish with mildly curved edges which offers a premium feel.
The 8 MP camera module with the LED flash and the Saturn rings is placed at the top center.
The bottom just has the speaker grill and the YU branding.
The power button is sandwiched between the volume rockers on the right.
Display:
The YU Yunique flaunts a 4.7 inch Fully Laminated IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection with resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The display is perfect in terms of viewing angles and other day-to-day usage. However, it is slightly difficult to use in sunlight. The touch sometimes did seem to have a minor glitch and is also slightly extra-sensitive.
Performance:
The YU Yunique is powered by the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz along with Adreno 306 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. While this is definitely a good offering at the price point, it quite doesn’t deliver to the expectations. The phone sometimes seems to lag when using many apps simultaneously and the 1 GB of RAM seems to get consumed too fast. However, for the average user it would offer a decent experience without any major issues.
We tried using the phone to play quite a few games. While the normal games like Temple Run worked perfectly, we did notice a few lags on Angry Birds. However, the heavier games like Asphalt 8 just wouldn’t go well with the device.
The device scored 21353 on the AnTuTu benchmark putting it slightly lower than even the Xiaomi Redmi 2.
OS and UI:
The YU Yunique interestingly runs on stock Android instead of the Cyanogen OS seen on other YU phones. However, the handset does have support for Cyanogen OS 12.1 and you can flash the handset yourself and install the custom ROM without voiding your warranty.
The handset runs on the latest Android 5.1.1 Lollipop version. While the OS is mostly stock, the company has made a few tweaks here and there but has kept the pre-installed bloatware to the bare minimum. The OS runs very smoothly and offers a perfect user experience.
Camera:
The YU Yunique has a rear facing 8 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. The camera sensor was slightly off the mark compared to other 8 MP camera sensors and displayed a slightly lower camera quality. The pictures taken in bright daylight seemed to lack clarity and the pictures taken in low light and indoors had too much noise.
The YU Yunique also has a 2 MP front facing camera with f/2.4 aperture and 83-degree wide-angle lens. While the camera did scoop in a wider picture, the quality of the selfie was just average. It is however very difficult to use the front camera in low-light conditions.
Storage and Connectivity:
The YU Yunique has 8 GB of internal storage of which just 4.07 GB is available to the user. However, there is support for microSD cards by which the memory can be expanded up to 32 GB. The device also has support for USB OTG.
On the connectivity front, The YU Yunique boasts of being one of the few 4G LTE enabled smartphones in the sub-Rs. 5k price range. The phone has dual SIM support with two Micro SIM card slots. However, only SIM 1 has 4G LTE support, with SIM 2 having only 2G connectivity. The phone also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.
Battery:
The 2000 mAh battery on the YU Yunique is permanently attached and cannot be removed. However, the battery offers a very good back-up of almost 15 hours on a single charge with averages usage. Also the charging doesn’t make you wait for long.
Conclusion:
At a mere Rs. 4999, the YU Yunique is definitely one of the most affordable 4G LTE smartphones in the Indian market and offers a quite a lot of value for the price. So if you are looking for a decent 4G enabled phone at a very low budget, the YU Yunique is definitely the way to go.
Pros:
- 4G LTE connectivity
- Size
- Stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
- Price
Cons:
- Performance
- Camera
