YU Televentures, a Micromax subsidiary brand finally launched their much anticipated budget smartphone Yunicorn today at their New Delhi event. Yunicorn is the new 2016 flagship from YU which sports a metal unibody design and will be available exclusively at Flipkart for Rs.12,999. I wasn't a big fan of previous YU phones but I must say, Yunicorn did impress me this time, the new flagship packs powerful hardware and a massive battery, plus it comes with a front fingerprint sensor, how cool is that?
YU Yunicorn : Redefining Flagship
Hardware & Design
The smartphone sports a 5.5-Inch Full HD Display with resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and 401 ppi. It comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Yunicorn looks a lot like Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Meizu m3 Note, it sports a metal unibody design and is 8.5 mm thick. Apart from that it packs a Mediatek Helio P10 Octa-Core processor (1.8GHz Quad-core + 1.4GHz Quad Core) with 4GB RAM, Mali-T860MP2 GPU and 32 Gigabyte internal storage. This hardware combination is currently one of the best for mid-budget smartphones, Meizu m3 Note uses the same processor as Yunicorn.
Camera
Yunicorn packs decent camera combination on paper but the actual thing is quite average and slow, the back shooter is a 13 Megapixel camera with Dual-LED dual-tonned flash and phase detection autofocus. It can shoot Full HD 1080p videos at 30fps. The front camera is a 5 Megapixel shooter. The camera is very slow as compared to other phones in this price segment. The shutter speed is very slow and laggy, it could've been better. Thank god, the images clicked from Yunicorn were not that bad, though it is slow but it captures decent photos. The UI is very basic, nothing new here.
Connectivity & Fingerprint Scanner
YU Yunicorn comes with a Dual-SIM support, it has a regular SIM slot and a hybrid SIM slot which can also be used as a microSD card slot and supports microSD card up to 32 gigs. The back side of Yunicorn is actually a mix of magnesium and aluminum. According to the company, magnesium gives rigidness to the device and makes the color last long. The fingerprint sensor is at front fused inside the home button like many other flagship phones. The scanner is quite accurate and fast. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS support, microUSB v2.0 etc. It supports Indian 3G and 4G networks.
Software
YU Yunicorn runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box but YU promised to roll Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow within a month of its launch. Since the expiration of contract between YU and Cyanogen, there is no more CyanogenMod OS, Yunicorn runs the company's very own OS which is called as 'Android on Steroids' OS... WTF, that's weird. The OS was designed by the YU team in Bangalore and comes with Around YU. The OS is very much similar to stock Android but has some tweaks here and there. Around YU 2.0 is a newly introduced integrated platform which now comes with even more services like a native-wallet known as UDIO, this wallet can be used for payments. Other integrated services include food, travel (Flights, Buses, Trains and Hotels), Shopping, cabs, cricket, News and Weather, access to doctors using video call etc.
Battery
Yunicorn packs inside a massive 4000 mAh battery which is enough to satisfy your hunger. According to YU, the battery can run for two whole days with heavy use, if this is true then it'll be like a dream come true for heavy users and gamers.
Conclusion
For now, YU Yunicorn looks great and very much improved as compared to previous YU phones, The design is better and premium, looks good in hands. The hardware is power packed, battery life is amazing and camera is somewhat decent. The phone will be available in three colors and they are Rush Gold, Rush Silver and Graphite. The phone is set to be released on June 7, 2016 and will be sold for Rs.12,999 (approx. $195) but the price will be hiked to 13,499 after one month. Pre-orders for Yunicorn started today, this phone will be exclusively available at Flipkart.
About Jimmie Luthra
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