Earlier in September this year, reports came in about Yu, the subsidiary of Micromax, making a powerful smartphone. Since then Yu periodically leaked bits of information about the device through its creative teasers and today it finally took the curtains off from its latest flagship – the Yu Yutopia which was unveiled today at an event in New Delhi at Rs 24,999.
From terming it as ‘world’s powerful smartphone’ to heaping praises on its display, camera etc, Yu had not left any stone unturned in promoting the Yutopia till now. Now its time to test the tall claims that Yu has made about Yutopia.
At the launch event, The Mobile Indian thus took the device for a spin to quickly check its construction and features. So here is our hands on of the Yu Yutopia which is certainly quite well equipped phone in the sub-Rs 25,000 price bracket.
As claimed by Yu, the Yutopia does have a full metal unibody and it looks quite elegant in that. In the back panel there is a hump which accommodates the rear camera. However, there is one design flaw in the device. Yu Yutopia has a Micro USB port and but the external design is that of port C. This is because, initially Yutopia was supposed to have a Type C port but later the company decided to go for a micro USB port as the former is still not a standard feature in most smartphones and thus data cables for Port C are not readily available when needed.
The Yu Yutopia comes armed with the powerful 2 GHz, 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa core Processor and huge 4 GB DDR4 RAM. The Snapdragon 810 is certainly one of the best processors in the market now and ofcourse 4 GB DDR4 RAM is the best that you can get in a smartphone these days. However, whether this combinations make Yutopia the ‘most powerful phone’ or not is yet to be decided and we will talk more about its performance later in its in-depth review.
The Yu Yutopia has fingerprint scanner, dual SIM, 4G connectivity, WiFi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with AGPS and GLONASS, and a 3000 mAh high density battery with Quick Charge 2.0 feature. The phone comes preinstalled with Cyanogen OS 12.1 which is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. There is 32 GB of built in storage in the phone and its micro SD card slot can hold a card of up to 128 GB capacity. However, since it has a hybrid SIM slot you can either use two SIM cards or a micro SD card with one SIM.
Now comes another important aspect of Yu Yutopia – its cameras. The phone looks quite good on paper with a 21 megapixel rear camera and an 8 megapixel front camera. The rear camera has Phase Detection Auto Focus feature, dual tone LED flash light support, 6P largan lens, Blue glass filter and an F2.2 aperture. The front 8 megapixel camera also has F2.2 Aperture and 5P Largan lens.
Last month, Yu tweeted several ‘stunning’ pictures which it claimed were clicked through the Yutopia’s cameras. You can check out those pictures here. We too clicked some pictures through the demo units which were on display during the unveiling ceremony which you can check here.
However, we will reserve our comment about its cameras till we lay our hand on the retail version of the device.
The X factor of Yu Yutopia is its ‘Around Yu’ services and not its hardware. Through this Yu has tried to redefine the way content or information is consumed by the user on the smartphone. ‘Around Yu’ is an integrated suite of services rolled into one discovery window for the users. So lets us understand how it works. Currently if you have to book a cab through your mobile, you will have to click multiple apps, to see the discounts and availability; then you have downloaded and initiate the action.
In ‘Around Yu’, you just have to select ‘Travel’ option from the menu and click to book. One catch is their for availing this service on Yutopia one need to create his Yu accout, using Gmail or any other email ID will not work here.
Around YU service is designed to pull up information from apps and web and provide contextual recommendation of content and actions, saving a user time and effort to switch among a plethora of apps. It will also analyze user behaviour with core analytics and present a personalized experience with right information.
In the first phase seven service are being offered – Food, Travel (Flights, Buses, Trains and Hotels), Shopping, Cabs, Cricket, News and Weather. The company plans to add more services in coming days to it.
One can access ‘Around Yu’ by swiping to the extreme right EDGE of the home screen. The current partners in this service ecosystem are Zomato, Ixigo, Scandid, Ola and easy Cab. Interestingly, Micromax has invested in all these companies over the last year.
If one selects the food category, he or she can search restaurant /café, a cuisine or a dish, call up the restaurant or even place an order. In shopping category one can compare prices across various sites with relevant coupon codes and also place an order. Similarly in Travel section one can search for flights, hotels, buses and train along with the option to book them.