Budget smartphones war: Yu Yuphoria vs Xiaomi Redmi 2

Budget smartphones war: Yu Yuphoria vs Xiaomi Redmi 2

SAURABH SINGH  NEW DELHI, MAY 12, 2015 | UPDATED 15:25 IST

Micromax owned sub-brand Yu launched its second budget smartphone in India on Tuesday. After the critical success of the Yureka, Yu has come up with another budget offering, the Yuphoria at Rs.6,999.

If you didn't notice, the Yuphoria is priced lower than the Yureka and is also in a way inferior to the latter in terms of specifications set. Therefore if you were expecting something on the lines of the Yureka (the company had been teasing the Yuphoria for quite some time now), you'll be disappointed.

As Yu would have it, the plan was never to kill the Yureka entirely; but to come out with something that would make the company's presence felt in the ultra-affordable segment. The plan was to make something that would compete with the Xiaomi Redmi 2, even the Moto E (Gen 2) and make Yu the household name that Xiaomi and Motorola have now become.

At Rs.6,999, the Yu Yuphoria is pitched straight up against the Redmi 2 and the Moto E (Gen 2) 3G. While it would be a little unfair to compare it with the Moto E 3G, a shootout with the Redmi 2 makes more sense. 

Let's find out if the Yuphoria is bang for the buck, like the Yureka...

Design and build quality    

According to Yu, the Yuphoria has been completely designed and assembled in India. It boasts of a "premium design at affordable prices", says the company. While design maybe subjective, the Yuphoria does pass of as quite a good-looking handset at its price.

It's good in the sense that it tries to maintain its individuality in a crowded market with very little innovation in terms of design.

While it's almost entirely made of plastic, the company has infused some metal which occupies a thin frame around the entire handset, breaking monotony in the process. The back consists of removable plastic with a slight matte finish that feels good to hold.

The headphone jack and the micro-USB ports have thin pieces of plastic wrapped around them in an otherwise continuous metallic frame. Although these look quite the odd man out, we can still live with that.

Overall, although we like the Redmi 2 as far as design aesthetics are concerned, the Yuphoria only looks 'slightly' better. The metal-frame deserves some credit for this; the Redmi 2 is plastic throughout.

Another thing that makes the Yuphoria stand out is the large glass cover over the rear camera lens. It does remind you of the Lumia 1020 to some extent, but you should know that's a pretty costly handset. Yu calls it the "Saturn ring design".

Display

The Yu Yuphoria comes with a 5-inch HD IPS display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The Redmi 2 on the other hand comes with a smaller 4.7-inch display with the exact resolution.

The Yuphoria is therefore a better bet if you're looking for a bigger (but not huge) handset at its price. But that's not all that there is to it.

We were pretty pleased with the Yureka's display output, at its price point. And, the Yuphoria doesn't disappoint either. We spent some time with the Yuphoria and in our brief usage we found its display output to be good for its price.

When compared with the Redmi 2, the Yuphoria seems to be brighter, with a slightly more vivid display.

Software

The Yu Yuphoria runs Android 5.0.2 based Cyanogen OS 12 out-of-the-box. The Redmi 2 on the other hand comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat with the company's MIUI 6 on top.

While we like the MIUI for the greater part, those who have used Cyanogen know how buttery smooth it is, and so customisable.

We like the fact that the Yuphoria comes with the very latest software, and the Lollipop-based Cyanogen 12 makes everything so fast and seamless. In our brief usage, we found the Yuphoria quite a treat to walk with.

When compared with the MIUI, the Cyanogen 12 gives you close to stock Android experience, and those who like Android's endless customisations would really appreciate it.

Performance

The Yuphoria is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor coupled with Adreno 306 GPU and 2GB of RAM.

The same processor powers the Redmi 2 (even RAM remains the same). Therefore, although both the Yuphoria and the Redmi 2 should theoretically give you more or less the same performance, there is a slight difference.

In our brief usage, we found the Yuphoria to give out a smoother performance, taking advantage of the underlying Cyanogen OS.

Camera

The Yuphoria sports an 8MP rear camera with an f/2.2 lens and LED flash along with a 5MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture. The Redmi 2 has an 8MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash, as also a front-facing 2MP snapper.

Now the Yureka had an amazing camera for its price, sadly the Yuphoria's rear camera did not excite us all that much in our brief usage.
While, we still reserve a final verdict on this for a later time, in our first impressions we found the Yuphoria being inferior to the Redmi 2 in the camera department.

Battery

The Yuphoria is backed by a 2,230mAh battery while the Redmi 2 has a slightly smaller 2,200mAh battery.

The Redmi 2 had a decent battery life for its price point, even the Yureka fared well in this regard. Whether or not the Yuphoria is able to do that in terms of actual usage is yet to be seen.

Value

Both the Yu Yuphoria and the Xiaomi Redmi 2 are similarly priced at Rs.6,999. While the Redmi 2 is officially available via Flipkart, the Yuphoria will retail through Amazon.in.

You'll of course have to go through the flash sale model to grab on to either of the devices.
Our preliminary results show the Yuphoria having a slight edge over the Redmi 2, particularly in terms of display and butter-smooth experience. At the same time, the camera does leave you asking for more to some extent in the Yuphoria.

Source: indiatoday