One can expect to see tremendous excitement around this device. The phone has an HD screen, 4G LTE support, a fast processor and a high-quality camera. And all this for less than Rs 5,000. If the company manages to strike a balance between demand and supply, it is possible that it will completely overtake Xiaomi and other Chinese smartphone brands in the market. This will also impact Samsung and other high-end device makers. This will be very interesting.
Look and design
The Yu Unique is a very compact phone by today’s standards and this is thanks to its 4.7-inch screen. The dimensions of the phone are 134.5 x 67.5 x 8.3 mm and its weight is 128 grams, although it feels smaller. The overall look is quite premium, but the illusion breaks as soon as you hold it in your hands. You will realize that the rear is made of plastic with a rubber-like coating. This usually starts chipping at different places or becomes a bit sticky after prolonged use.
The U brand logo is placed above the screen. There is a front camera on one side and an LED sensor next to the earpiece grille. The micro-USB port is at the bottom and the 3.5mm headset socket is at the top. We did not like the way the power button is placed between the volume buttons. During our time with this phone, we could not get used to this setup and kept pressing the wrong button quite often.
The rear side has a camera with LED flash. Its design is very similar to the camera setup of Yu Yuphoria. The device has another logo of the Yu brand at the bottom of the rear panel.
The micro-SIM slot is placed on either side of the camera lens and there is also a micro SD card slot. The Yu Unique comes with a charger and a USB cable. For some reason, the company has provided a bright blue colour LED in the charger. Its light is disturbing in the dark.
Specifications and software
The U isn’t the company’s first attempt to pack powerful hardware into a budget phone, but the company is slowly getting better at it. The smartphone comes with a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1GB of RAM, but the company is highlighting the phone’s HD 720×1280 pixel display and LTE support in its marketing campaign. The handset has 8GB of inbuilt storage and a 2,000mAh battery. The rear camera has an 8-megapixel sensor, while the front camera has a 2-megapixel sensor.
In almost every way, the Yu Yunique phone is similar to the Xiaomi Redmi 2. However, it is Rs 1,000 cheaper and is also sleeker. The biggest difference between the two devices is in the software.
The Yu Unique runs on a stock version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. This is the first handset in the Yu family to move away from CyanogenOS 12. The company says that users can install Cyanogen if they wish.
Yu has introduced a new web browser called Yuuniverse. It is basically a customized version of Opera. Apart from a few features, the operating system is a completely stock version of Android, which is a good thing.
Camera
The camera performance of Xiaomi’s cheap smartphones has been good. In this regard, Yu Unique seems to be lagging behind. The pictures taken with the smartphone camera had less detail than we expected. The pictures looked good on the camera screen or when posted on Facebook, but the deficiency was clearly visible when viewed on the computer screen.
Photos taken at night were even weaker. They became blurry when there was a lot of motion. Unless we took photos in direct light, the shots were very noisy. We often had trouble locking focus on the subject. We also found that the results are better if you don’t rely on autofocus.
The camera app is decent. The video output of the camera was also not great, but we have to consider the price of the phone. Maybe we are used to more. It is clear that although in other respects this device is trying to compete with devices above its range, the camera is very average.
Performance
We had no problem using this phone. The device feels more expensive than its price. The screen is sharp and crisp, but the viewing angles are not great. It is difficult to read anything on the handset’s screen in sunlight.
Our 1080p resolution test videos played smoothly on the handset. The built-in speakers are loud but the sound is a bit distorted even at low volumes. The good thing is that we did not feel the handset heating up even after playing games for a long time. The battery lasted 9 hours and 12 minutes on the video loop test. The benchmark test results were also decent.
Our verdict
The U Unique is known for its price. In this regard, it beats the Xiaomi Redmi 2 by a huge margin. It is a better device in some respects, such as its unique style and stock Android experience. However, the battery is weak and the camera performance is also average. Apart from this, the U Unique is available through flash sales which consumers cannot afford. At the same time, Xiaomi has improved the supply and also made the sales process easier in view of the increasing demand in India.
You will have to make some compromises with the Yu Unique. If you are ready for that, then save Rs 1,000 and be happy. Anyway, the performance of both the phones is good. The display is also great and so is the 4G LTE support. Until some time ago, a smartphone with such great specifications at this price was unimaginable. But today, users have many options. This is a great time for those who want to buy a cheap phone.