Micromax YU Yureka with Cyanogen OS

Deep Dey
By -Deep Dey



Utilitarian design and good build

At first glance, the Yureka smartphone doesn't look very different from other Micromax budget devices, complete with a glossy, black plastic front panel and capacitive touch keys. The corners are pronouncedly rounded while the edges are flat. Although it falls in phablet territory, the Yureka doesn't feel humongous.


The phone has a removable back panel that has slightly rounded edges and a soft matte finish. Micromax refers to the finish as 'Moonstone Grey' and it does remind us of the OnePlus One although the similarity is more in the grey colour than in texture. The power key is placed at the right edge while the volume rocker sits at the left side. The keys are made of plastic and offer decent tactile feedback.
The 13MP rear camera and LED flash are placed at the back towards the left side and don't protrude out. You'll also find some YU branding (the only bit) and a speaker grill at the back. removing the back cover reveals the battery compartment, two micro-sim card slots and a microSD card slot.

Display is a mixed bag

Eureka features a 5.5-inch IPS display with HD (720x1280p) resolution. Unlike OnePlus One the panel is not full-HD and this implies that the number of pixels per inch are less. While we didn't notice distortion due to lower pixel density, we did find colours to be a little over saturated. We're not sure if it has got to do with the custom icons of the default theme that look a little too vibrant or the display.


Viewing angles were good but the display is highly reflective. This may cause some problems in using the phone under direct sunlight.





The display has Gorilla Glass 3 to protect against scratches and an oleophobic coating to prevent smudging.

Modern hardware

Micromax Yureka sports the latest internals and is one of the cheapest devices to offer 4G connectivity and a chip based on 64 bit architecture.

The phone is powered by a 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa core chip with 1.5GHz processor cores, Adreno 405 graphics and 2GB DDR3 RAM. We've seen the same chip in the recently launched Vivo X5Max phone. Qualcomm's latest chip supports dual-mode 4G LTE connectivity with support for both LTE TDD 2300MHz and LTE FDD 1800MHz bands covering most present and upcoming Indian 4G networks. It's worth pointing out that the 64-bit architecture is not supported by Android 4.4, but Cyanogen and Micromax have promised that the phone will soon get the Android Lollipop update. Phones still need more memory to fully leverage 64-bit capabilities and 2GB would not really suffice.
It has 16GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. The phone supports 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS connectivity options. It comes with a 2500mAh battery which the company claims delivers up to 210 hours of standby time and 8 hours of talktime.

Software offers high level of customization

Micromax Yureka runs Cyanogen OS 11 a custom aftermarket version of Android (version 4.4 KitKat) developed by Cyanogen. CyanogenMod, Cyanogen's Android ROM, is known for its customisability, enhanced performance and additional security and privacy features.




The look and feel is very close to stock Android barring a few UI elements, although customization is possible via themes. The default theme has been tweaked a bit and the icons looked different from the OnePlus One which also runs the same OS.

Interestingly, you can choose between using hardware capacitive keys and soft on-screen navigation keys, blacklist and block phone numbers, password protect or hide apps and sync app and game data through Baton. The phone will soon get the Android Lollipop update.We did not notice any lag or stutter while launching and switching between apps.

Camera

YU Yureka features a 13MP rear camera (f2.2 aperture, capable of 1080p video capture) with Sony EXMOR CMOS sensor and a 5MP front camera with 71 degree field of view. The phone can also shoot slow-motion videos as 60 frames per second and a future software update will make it capable of shooting slow motion video at 120 frames per second.



The phone comes with the CyanogenMod Camera app that offers granular settings for controls including size, quality, shutter speed, focus duration, focus mode, and ISO, among others. Vertical swipes change the scene mode while horizontal swipes lets you browse pictures and videos shot with the phone. The app offers Panorama, Burst and HDR modes.

We'll need to spend more time with the phone to comment on the image quality of the camera but we did not notice any shutter lag in our brief use.

Good pricing

At Rs 8,999, the YU Yureka phone seems to be a really good deal if you're looking for a phone that offers a good combination of modern hardware and software that offers a higher level of customization. It is also the only phone besides Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G and Nokia Lumia 638 to offer 4G at a sub-Rs 10,000 price.




The phone would appeal even more to developers and contributors to the Cyanogen project as it will come with an unlockable boot loader and the warranty will be honoured even if the phone is rooted. Micromax will also offer free replacement or repair at the consumer's doorstep.