The time that people think smartphone is a luxury is over. Nowadays, even people who have limited income, can easily access smartphones with all basic features they want. The best example is Micromax Yu Yunique, launched in market in September 2015.
Design & display
Micromax Yu Yunique, with 128g weight and 134.5x 67.5x 8.3mm measurements, is a compact phone that has a quite premium look. But its plastic rear shell with the sort of rubberized coating may become sticky over time. However, the rounded edges and the rear cover give a good grip on the phone. The 4.7 inch form factor also makes the Yu Yunique fit for one handed operation. You can see the Yu Logo on both the front and back side of the phone.
You cannot see anything else than the on-screen Android navigation buttons on the front of the phone. Yu Unique has a 3.5mm headset socket on the top and a Micro-USB port on the bottom. The volume buttons are positioned on the side, but the position of power button between the volume buttons is not appreciable, as it may tend for wrong hit. The device has only a charger and a USB cable. The bright blue LED on the charger is not a wise idea, as it may disturb your sleep at night, if you put the phone in charge anywhere in the same room.
The camera on the rear, just like in the Yu Yuphoria, the previous model, is surrounded by a stylish thick ring with a notch to one side that houses the LED flash. You can remove the rear shell by prying it with a fingernail under one corner. The battery along with a large warning about trying to force it out can be seen inside the phone. One Micro-SIM slot and a MicroSD card slot can be seen on either side of the camera lens.
The Micromax Yu Yunique features a 4.7-inch HD display with a 312 ppi pixel density, which is good for a budget smartphone. In fact, Yu Yunique is the only smartphone that gives 4.7-inch dislay at this price range. The screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The small screen size is actually suitable for images, text, icons etc. Pixilation issues also not disturb you. Even though it has a balanced color reproduction, the display is not very bright. It may look a bit washed out at more than 50 percent brightness. Even though Yu Yunique can give good experience with video and games, it fails in giving a very high contrast ratio. Overall, there is a slight blue tinge to it. Another concern area, sunlight legibility, can be solved by using a matte finish screen guard.
Camera
Micromax Yu Yunique comes with an 8MP camera that has a large f/2.0 aperture on the rear side and a 2MP front camera with a wide-angle. The front camera is hopeless in terms of image quality and it is waxy on most occasions. Even though the rear camera is comparatively better, it gives usable photographs only in sufficient lighting. So, it is best to use only in outdoor. The indoor and low light photographs show noise. The night shots have too much motion blur. Even the close-up shots appear with slightly indistinct borders and muddy textures. Moreover, focusing in low light is also slow. As the users may also have trouble locking focus on the subject sometimes, it is better to about autofocus.
High contrast HDR situations fail to provide a balanced image, as there is purple fringing in the image. Overall Yu Yunique camera is just an average in performance. In short, the photographs look good on the phone screen and in the size for Facebook or sharing, but the drawbacks are revealed at their original size. A quick one-touch is enough to access HDR, Portrait, Sports, Snow modes. Also, there is a single drop menu provided by the settings button, which makes your selection easier. So it has a simple navigation for the camera menus.
Multimedia
Microsoft Yu Yunique offers a good multimedia experience. The headphones provided in the box along with the device are loud enough and a little high on the bass. But, if you replace them with a good pair of headphones, you can enjoy quality and detailed audio. However, the speaker in Yu Yunique is average. Even though moderately loud, it misses clarity and details.
Yunique has several equalizer presets with options like Bass Boost, Reverb effects and Surround, which works pretty well too. This certainly gives an exciting listening experience to music lovers. The FM radio is also loud and offers clear reception. Yunique also features the video player that can play both HD (720p) and full HD (1080p).
Hardware & Software
Microsoft Yu Yunique comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC, which is clocked at a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and an Adreno 306 GPU for graphics-intensive tasks. The phone is paired with 1GB of RAM, which is enough to do the daily tasks including social networking, internet surfing, multimedia use and some phone calls. But, it may lag at times, if more than five apps simultaneously running in the background. The phone has 8GB of internal storage and 4.61 GB out of it is available to the user. Those, who need more storage capacity, have can add another 32GB via the microSD card slot. It makes the users able enjoy music, movies and some apps without lagging.
Microsoft Yu Yunique is identical to the Xiaomi Redmi 2 in pretty much every regard. The only major difference between the two is the software used. Yunique comes with a stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS, instead of the Cyanogen OS loaded in the previous Yu phones. But the interesting part is that you can install Cyaogen Os 12.1 without worrying about voiding the warranty that Yu promised. You don’t get many customizations on the Yunique, rather than the standard set of apps. It has a default wallpaper and a few of the app icons are changed. Micromax has bundled a YUniverse web browser, which is based on the Opera Mini browser. Overall, the OS runs smoothly, except for a few hiccups somewhere.
Connectivity options
Micromax Yu Yunique, the dual SIM (Both are GSM) smartphone, accepts two micro-SIM. Other connectivity options of the device are Bluetooth, FM, GPS, Wi-Fi, 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). There are also some sensors such as proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor and Accelerometer.
Battery life
Yu Yunique comes with a non-removable Li-Po 2000 mAh battery that claims 271 hours of life in stand-by mode and up to 7 hours of talk time. It is enough for lasting the whole day with moderate usage. It is sure that the battery will last a good 4 hours, even with an hour of phone calls, some casual gaming for 20 minutes and social networking.
Micromax Yu Yunique is available with a price tag of Rs 4,999, which is an affordable digit for everybody who wants to buy a smartphone with basic facilities like checking mails, internet browsing, gaming, video watching and vice calling etc.