Micromax's Yu Yureka Plus Review

Micromax's Yu Yureka Plus Review: Small Tweaks Make a Good Phone Better

At the beginning of 2015, Micromax launched the new Yu brand and series of 

smartphones. These devices are only available online but offer great 

specifications at low prices, focusing on the increased customisation options

 offered by the CyanogenMod operating system that Yu preloads onto its devices. The Yureka (Review | Pictures) and Yuphoria (Review | Pictures) both offer the

 benefits of customisability and great specifications at competitive prices, and 

have enjoyed some success.

Yu's third product is the Yureka Plus. At Rs. 8,999,  adds a bit to the spec sheet

 to justify the price hike. The two big changes are a higher-resolution full-HD screen

 and a new camera sensor that should improve photo quality by a bit. We go into the 

details to find out what the Yureka Plus is all about.

Look and Feel
The Yureka Plus has inherited its predecessor's nomenclature for a reason; it looks

 and feels exactly like the Yu Yureka. There is not a single thing different, and you 

wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the Yureka and Yureka Plus if both 

were to be placed side-by-side. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since we quite 

liked the way the Yureka was designed. From the minimalist look in front to the 

textured 'moonstone grey' back panel, the phone is still attractive and feels great to hold.

Most of the rest of the device design remains the same as well. The primary SIM and

 microSD slots are only accessible by removing the battery, while the second SIM 

slot is hot-swappable and doesn't need the phone to be switched off. Power and volume

 controls remain in the same places as before, while the only marking on the front is a 

circle that denotes the home button. The three soft keys light up when the screen is on, 

and the phone lets you set any or all of the keys to wake the device with a double tap.

The only difference you'll perceive is a visibly sharper and more detailed full-HD screen. 

We were happy with the Yureka's 720p screen at the time of reviewing it, but the market 

has changed a lot since then. With the spec war heating up, a 1080p screen in the 

sub-Rs. 10,000 segment isn't impossible anymore. Yu has been smart, as the 

full-HD screen adds tremendous value to the package. It is sharp, detailed, and 

accurate with colours. Although it's sufficiently bright indoors, outdoor visibility suffers 

a bit since it can't get quite as bright as it needs to. However, it's still a far better screen

 than we're used to seeing at this price level.

Specifications and Software
When the Yu Yureka first broke onto the scene, its specifications list was impressive 

to say the least. At a time when the vast majority of budget phones were using

 lower-cost MediaTek  SoCs, the Yureka used the then-new Snapdragon 615. Apart

 from that there was also 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM, along with 4G 

compatibility and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

These specifications remain the same on the Yureka Plus, and unfortunately don't quite

 have the same shock value anymore since a long list of devices in this price bracket 

have matched them. However, it's still a competitive set of components for the price and

 will remain competitive for a long time to come.

Yu has stuck to Cyanogen 12 OS for the Yureka Plus, although the system is based 

on Android 5.0.2 out of the box, an upgrade over the Yureka which came with Android 4.4.4.

 We're big fans of the operating system, since it offers a host of customisability options 

that let you set your phone up exactly how you want it. From button functions to the 

lockscreen; from the status and pull-down bar to the notification drawer; everything is

customisable and can be adjusted to your liking. Above all, it's a quick and efficient 

system that is a pleasure to use. Very little is different from what the Yureka offers.

There's also very little bloatware on the system, and the handful of apps that are present

 are actually incredibly useful. AudioFX is a system-wide audio equaliser and controller, 

while Screencast lets you record video of your phone's screen. Perhaps the only app we 

didn't care much for was the Yuniverse Opera-based browser. Fortunately it could be 

uninstalled and was out of our way within seconds.

Camera
The second thing that has changed in going from Yureka to Yureka Plus is the camera

 module. While the Yureka used the older Sony IMX135 sensor, the Yureka Plus has 

the newer IMX214 sensor. Although both are 13-megapixel sensors, the IMX214 has 

small technical tweaks that promise better photography and videography, including 

improved support for HDR stills and video.

In practice, the camera is at least as impressive as the one on the Yureka. Pictures 

are detailed, sharp and have colours that are vibrant and truly pop. You have to zoom 

really far in on a desktop monitor to reveal any flaws in the images, and whites have 

the proper colour tone. However, there are definite issues in the handling of low-light 

situations, with dark zones in images appearing too dark to be able to spot any detail.

HDR mode offered excellent results, with the already great colour handling improving 

dramatically. We generally preferred to shoot in HDR mode, as the effect was subtle, 

yet visible. Video was usually good, as were close up shots. With the exception of the 

slight problems with low-light shooting, the camera on the Yureka Plus is slightly 

improved over the one on the Yureka. The front camera takes acceptable shots, 

although it also suffers from the same tendency to underperform with low-light shots.

The camera app is minimalistic and easy to use, with settings icons occupying only a 

small part of the screen, keeping most of it for the viewfinder. There are buttons for 

quick video, photo and panorama shots, along with a flash selector, the camera switcher

 and a shortcut to the various modes. It's well designed and makes camera use easy. 

We had some issues with the speed of the autofocus on the Yureka which have been 

fixed with the Yureka Plus; autofocus is usually quick and effortless.

Performance
The Yu Yureka Plus is a capable device in terms of performance, thanks to the 

combination of a good SoC, strong specifications, and an excellent operating system. 

Our collection of test videos loaded and ran well, including the most heavily encoded 

clips. Even with apps and games, the phone ran fairly well most of the time, with graphics

 slowing down only slightly on rare occasions.

Benchmark tests showed excellent numbers for a phone using the Snapdragon 615 SoC,

 and all scores were slightly higher than those recorded on the Yu Yureka. AnTuTu and 

Quadrant returned commendable scores of 34,457 and 24,116 respectively, while

 GFXBench and 3DMark recorded scores of 14fps and 5,477 each. All of this confirms 

that the Yureka Plus is a good performer, and offers excellent returns for the price.

Call and speaker quality are both decent, and network reception gave us no reason to 

complain. Battery life on the Yureka was underwhelming, but this seems to have been 

improved considerably on the Yureka Plus, despite the higher-resolution screen. 

Our video loop test drained the battery in 10 hours, 5 minutes, which is a huge improvement

 over the Yureka. In day to day use, the battery drains as quickly as any Android smartphone, 

 and so it should comfortably last a full day with normal use.

Verdict
Yu has made it a point to keep the fact that it's owned by Micromax as low-key as possible. 

This has helped the brand establish itself as an independent entity with its own appeal, 

which has worked well. The Yu Yuphoria's popularity is proof of that, and can also be 

seen as a sign of things to come.

The Yu Yureka was a groundbreaking product when it launched. It showed just what a 

budget smartphone was capable of, and set the stage for what have proven to be fun 

times in the smartphone price wars. It also showed the world just how important a good

 operating system is to the smartphone experience.

The Yu Yureka Plus is an intelligent way to strengthen the company's first product now 
that the competition has had some time to catch up. It has improved just enough to give
 it a sense of freshness, while retaining all the qualities that made it stand out in the first place. This is what keeps the phone and the company relevant, and we have no issues 
with recommending the Yu Yureka Plus if you're shopping for a smartphone under Rs. 10,000.