YU Televentures has seen better days and with Cynogenmod being shut YU's several Cynogen supporting smartphones are simply outdated. If ...
YU Televentures has seen better days and with Cynogenmod being shut YU's several Cynogen supporting smartphones are simply outdated. If reports are to be believed Yu's operations and manpower have been merged with Micromax. Amidst much anticipation YU has finally released the Yureka Black that is an Android smartphone. This is a desperate attempt from YU to seize its rightful place in the market.
Rating: 4.0/5
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Great selfie camera | fabulous design | easy handling | value for money CONS 
Unimpressive rear camera | outdated processor Full Specifications Yu, the Micromax subsidiary, has created a reputation and a subsequent market for itself in just a little over three years. YU has propelled several smartphones since its inception. The Indian smartphone manufacturer has a prowess in sub 10k category with more than half a dozen phones in the segment.
YU launched yet another sub-10 k phone, Yureka Black, available exclusively on Flipkart. The company claims that the smartphone sold out in less than a week which is enough to describe the popularity of YU among sub-10 k smartphone users.
Yureka Black is priced at INR 8,999 and comes in two colors Chrome Black and Matte Black. It has a standard RAM and ROM combination viz. 4 GB and 32 GB respectively and no other variation is available for the phone. The phone also supports memory expansion by up to 64 GB via micro SD card.
Yureka Black has some great features that several smartphones in the price segment of more than INR 10000 lack. However, we will try to determine if these features really are up to the mark and deliver decent results.
Without further a due let's get started.
Full Specification
Design- Unbelievable looks for a smartphone priced under Rs.10k
Priced at a generous Rs. 8,999 the smartphone sports unbelievable looks for its price. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if substantial number of buyers get their hands on it just for the eye candy that this phone is.
It comes in Matte Black and Chrome Black colors and both the variants look stunningly appealing. The chrome black color makes the phone slip out of hands very often. We recommend buyers to go for Matte Black variant for easy handling in everyday usage. The back panel sports an embossed camera at the center with the flash right below it. The back panel also has two engraved linings at the top and at the bottom that enhance its looks.
The front panel has a fingerprint sensor at the base. The selfie camera is placed at the right side of the front microphone while the front flash is on the left side of the microphone. The curved edges of the phone along with the black color give it a pseudo appearance of minimalistic bezel.
However, this is not what the case is and the phone has bezel around. A pin point notification LED rests at the top right corner of the front face.
The volume rockers and lock/unlock toggle are placed on the right edge of the phone and their placement makes it really easy to use the phone with a single hand as well. The 3.5 mm audio jack rests at top edge of the phone while the micro USB 2.0 port is at the bottom edge surrounded by speakers from left and right.
The dimensions of the phone are optimum for single hand use even with the fingerprint sensor placed on front panel. Talking of which, the sensor is reasonably responsive. At times you might have to give it a try more than once. Considering the fact that fingerprint sensors in sub 10K phones is yet not common it works quite well.
The smartphone has a dimension of 142 x 69.6 x 8.73 mm and weighs close to 152 grams.
Camera: A crisp front camera for selfie lovers
Yureka Black has a 13 MP primary snapper and an 8 MP selfie shooter. The primary camera has a Sony IMX258 sensor along with a dual tone flash.
YU has offered several enticing features for the camera such as the HDR mode, super pixel, night mode, sports mode and even panorama.
The HDR mode works quiet well for small objects. In case of extreme exposure difference it manages to equal out the exposure to a substantial level however the picture quality gets distorted.
The picture quality developed under daylight and well lit conditions is best in the price segment. The 8MP selfie camera delivers better quality although pictures appear to be animated to some level. Selfies are well lit and have a more than decent quality which makes them good enough for social media.
The front flash operates efficiently in the darkest of conditions. The rear flash however is not too great in developing good imagery.
Pictures is low light are noisy and downright unbearable. Turning on the night mode helps in capturing night light portraits which gives users something new to experiment with.
Video recording is supported at 1080p @30 fps and the quality is average. One of the negatives of the camera is that while recording videos the auto focus is disabled.
Overall the camera and picture quality of the smartphone is more than just decent.
Hardware: Decent day to day performance
Yureka Black offers 4GB of RAM along with 32 GB of ROM. It houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, a bit outdated but works well enough operating at 1.4GHz clock speed. Black is probably the only smartphone in the segment with 4 gigs of RAM. The smartphone is meant for normal usage and hence trying to run heavy games on it is nothing more than sabotaging its performance deliberately.
Although modern combat ran well enough for initial 10 minutes, later on the smartphone started overheating and touch got a little unresponsive. Light games can very well be handled by the budget smartphone. Adreno 505 GPU works well on board however it's the CPU that gives up on running tedious graphics.
The speakers are not too loud that makes room for some quality. The bass is dim but the vocals and treble are not too shrill which gives this phone a balanced hi-fi quality.
Yureka Black has a micro USB 2.0 port and charging is slow on the device.
It takes at least four to five hours to fully load up the 3,000 mAh non-removable battery on the device which is then good to last more than 10 hours under heavy usage and more than 20 hours if used lightly.
Display: Bright but over saturated
Yureka Black has 5.0 inch 1080 x1920 IPS LCD. The capacitive touchscreen functions smooth and thedisplay is aptly visible in daylight. Display is not one of the strong points of the phone and it gets quite evident when you play a video on the phone. Over saturation is an issue that might bother users after a certain period of time.
The smartphone supports two SIM cards at once and also has micro SD card slot that all go in the side tray.
Software: The dated Android 6.0 Marshmallow
The smartphone runs on Android v 6.0 Marshmallow but soon enough it will receive Nougat 7.1.1 update. The user interface is very simple. The UI works without a glitch mostly because it has all the icons on the home screen itself.
The simple and effective GUI suits the smartphone considering the fact that it has been priced less than 10 k and majority of users will not be too interested in a complex GUI.
Conclusion
Yureka Black is probably one of the best smartphones in the price segment for its looks, simple to use GUI and a good front and rear camera. The performance of the phone is quite decent as well.
Where this phone lags behind is the persistent overheating when the going gets tough and issues with the outdated OS. Once the update rolls out for Black its performance can be expected to get better.
Rating: 4.0/5
More Gallery » PROS
Great selfie camera | fabulous design | easy handling | value for money CONS Unimpressive rear camera | outdated processor Full Specifications Yu, the Micromax subsidiary, has created a reputation and a subsequent market for itself in just a little over three years. YU has propelled several smartphones since its inception. The Indian smartphone manufacturer has a prowess in sub 10k category with more than half a dozen phones in the segment.YU launched yet another sub-10 k phone, Yureka Black, available exclusively on Flipkart. The company claims that the smartphone sold out in less than a week which is enough to describe the popularity of YU among sub-10 k smartphone users.
Yureka Black is priced at INR 8,999 and comes in two colors Chrome Black and Matte Black. It has a standard RAM and ROM combination viz. 4 GB and 32 GB respectively and no other variation is available for the phone. The phone also supports memory expansion by up to 64 GB via micro SD card.
Yureka Black has some great features that several smartphones in the price segment of more than INR 10000 lack. However, we will try to determine if these features really are up to the mark and deliver decent results.
Without further a due let's get started.
Full Specification
Design- Unbelievable looks for a smartphone priced under Rs.10k
Priced at a generous Rs. 8,999 the smartphone sports unbelievable looks for its price. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if substantial number of buyers get their hands on it just for the eye candy that this phone is.
It comes in Matte Black and Chrome Black colors and both the variants look stunningly appealing. The chrome black color makes the phone slip out of hands very often. We recommend buyers to go for Matte Black variant for easy handling in everyday usage. The back panel sports an embossed camera at the center with the flash right below it. The back panel also has two engraved linings at the top and at the bottom that enhance its looks.The front panel has a fingerprint sensor at the base. The selfie camera is placed at the right side of the front microphone while the front flash is on the left side of the microphone. The curved edges of the phone along with the black color give it a pseudo appearance of minimalistic bezel.However, this is not what the case is and the phone has bezel around. A pin point notification LED rests at the top right corner of the front face.
The volume rockers and lock/unlock toggle are placed on the right edge of the phone and their placement makes it really easy to use the phone with a single hand as well. The 3.5 mm audio jack rests at top edge of the phone while the micro USB 2.0 port is at the bottom edge surrounded by speakers from left and right.
The dimensions of the phone are optimum for single hand use even with the fingerprint sensor placed on front panel. Talking of which, the sensor is reasonably responsive. At times you might have to give it a try more than once. Considering the fact that fingerprint sensors in sub 10K phones is yet not common it works quite well.
The smartphone has a dimension of 142 x 69.6 x 8.73 mm and weighs close to 152 grams.
Camera: A crisp front camera for selfie lovers
Yureka Black has a 13 MP primary snapper and an 8 MP selfie shooter. The primary camera has a Sony IMX258 sensor along with a dual tone flash.
YU has offered several enticing features for the camera such as the HDR mode, super pixel, night mode, sports mode and even panorama.The HDR mode works quiet well for small objects. In case of extreme exposure difference it manages to equal out the exposure to a substantial level however the picture quality gets distorted.
The picture quality developed under daylight and well lit conditions is best in the price segment. The 8MP selfie camera delivers better quality although pictures appear to be animated to some level. Selfies are well lit and have a more than decent quality which makes them good enough for social media.The front flash operates efficiently in the darkest of conditions. The rear flash however is not too great in developing good imagery.Pictures is low light are noisy and downright unbearable. Turning on the night mode helps in capturing night light portraits which gives users something new to experiment with.Video recording is supported at 1080p @30 fps and the quality is average. One of the negatives of the camera is that while recording videos the auto focus is disabled.
Overall the camera and picture quality of the smartphone is more than just decent.
Hardware: Decent day to day performance
Yureka Black offers 4GB of RAM along with 32 GB of ROM. It houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, a bit outdated but works well enough operating at 1.4GHz clock speed. Black is probably the only smartphone in the segment with 4 gigs of RAM. The smartphone is meant for normal usage and hence trying to run heavy games on it is nothing more than sabotaging its performance deliberately.
Although modern combat ran well enough for initial 10 minutes, later on the smartphone started overheating and touch got a little unresponsive. Light games can very well be handled by the budget smartphone. Adreno 505 GPU works well on board however it's the CPU that gives up on running tedious graphics.
The speakers are not too loud that makes room for some quality. The bass is dim but the vocals and treble are not too shrill which gives this phone a balanced hi-fi quality.Yureka Black has a micro USB 2.0 port and charging is slow on the device.
It takes at least four to five hours to fully load up the 3,000 mAh non-removable battery on the device which is then good to last more than 10 hours under heavy usage and more than 20 hours if used lightly.
Display: Bright but over saturated
Yureka Black has 5.0 inch 1080 x1920 IPS LCD. The capacitive touchscreen functions smooth and thedisplay is aptly visible in daylight. Display is not one of the strong points of the phone and it gets quite evident when you play a video on the phone. Over saturation is an issue that might bother users after a certain period of time.
The smartphone supports two SIM cards at once and also has micro SD card slot that all go in the side tray.
Software: The dated Android 6.0 Marshmallow
The smartphone runs on Android v 6.0 Marshmallow but soon enough it will receive Nougat 7.1.1 update. The user interface is very simple. The UI works without a glitch mostly because it has all the icons on the home screen itself.
The simple and effective GUI suits the smartphone considering the fact that it has been priced less than 10 k and majority of users will not be too interested in a complex GUI.
Conclusion
Yureka Black is probably one of the best smartphones in the price segment for its looks, simple to use GUI and a good front and rear camera. The performance of the phone is quite decent as well.
Where this phone lags behind is the persistent overheating when the going gets tough and issues with the outdated OS. Once the update rolls out for Black its performance can be expected to get better.
