Budget Smartphone-Micromax Yu-Yuphoria Review

One year after using first gen Moto E, I was getting tired of its erratic behavior like frequent switch offs. I started looking for a decent phone. I began at Rs 20000, Zenfone 2 range. After analyzing the products at that price band and their reviews, I figured out that I do not need most of the high end specs offered in those phones. Also as they lose value sharply, risk of loss/damage is higher, I concluded best strategy will be to buy a phone in Rs 6000-9000 range and possibly replace it after an year, than buying a Rs 20k phone and hoping it will last several years.

So I started looking at options in Rs 6000-10000 range. Lenovo K3 note came to my attention but buying it was a super complex process, so eliminated it. After analyzing Lenovo A7000, Redmi 2 etc, I narrowed down to Micromax Yu Yuphoria, which had recently received a price cut. At Rs 7000 it sounded like a good deal. (That was 3 months ago. Now Yuphoria is another thousand rupee cheaper) Yu was lesser know brand but with a backing of Micromax, I felt I can take a chance. Specs sounded decent, reviews were largely good, price was affordable and there was no complex process like register first, wait for flash sale etc. So ordered this phone on Amazon.

Swiss mountains, clicked with Yuphoria

Amazon delivered Yu Yuphoria in 4 days (from Gurgaon) and when I tried to open the packet, unboxing was very difficult. Eventually I opened it, added battery, sim card and switched it on. Battery was fully charged, which was good because most of the time batteries will have minimal charge. 

But as I switched on, the experience was annoying. Phone has a Cynaogen OS which is slightly different from regular android, though based on it. It started reading me out everything I was trying to. Single tap would result in read out and double tap would perform the operation. This meant I had to tap twice on everything and to scroll down I had to use both hands (two fingers). This was super annoying. I changed phone to silent mode, still device will readout every operation I was trying to do. The loud noise was disturbing. Then I managed to open setting and turn this voice off. Now the phone started to behave normally. Single tap and one finger scroll would work fine now.

Understandably, the voice over is a good feature for those who are blind or those who can’t read clearly or those who aren’t much familiar with smart phones. It helps them understand and use the phone effectively. But for others it could be irritation. Also don’t unbox the Yuphoria phone at your work desk- everyone around will get disturbed by the loud noise.

Opening the back-lid was little tricky (you will need a pen like device if you don't have long nail) and so was inserting SIM. It wasn’t very clear if it takes mini sim or micro sim. I accidentally inserted micro sim and then had to struggle to get it out and insert mini SIM. Clear call out of sim type will be better. But then you won’t be doing these every day, so it is fine. Each time you close the back cover, you will have to press at 10 different spots to ensure that back cover is locked properly. Casing of Yuphoria feels very cheap.

City Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania, clicked with Yuphoria

Good things about Yu Yuphoria:

• 4G
• Decent 8MP camera with flash
• Well priced and well spec
• Could be purchased without flashsale, invite and other such cumbersome process.

Camera is very good- much better than than first gen Moto E that I had.Night/indoor photo is also decent. Has a flash and few easy to use settings. For its price point camera performance is decent. Following posts contain photos taken mostly with Yuphoria- Cruise ship in Copenhagen * Fun with Carbon Filament lamps* Indian Restaurants in Europe with odd timings *

During my Europe trip, wherever carrying DSLR was not that convenient, I managed with Yuphoria camera only. Its photo quality was good enough for my usage (in my blogs and social sharing). Even the zoom is good, if you can hold the phone stable. Below is a pic clicked in Brussels Central station with Zoom.
And without zoom

And two selfie samples. Selfie indoor and night time is just satisfactory.

This Yuphoria phone is assembled in India (Still made in China) compared to other sets made in China and imported.

There was no Amazon app preloaded (unlike flipkart which tries to stuff its app as a native app on phones sold through it). Good.

Audio quality, dual SIM usage and rest of the hardware & software are decent. No complaints. Battery lasts for 2 days easily if used judiciously, 24 hours if used extensively. 

Not so good things about Yuphoria budget smartphone.

• Dialer app hangs very frequently. Very annoying if you have an urgent call to make.
• After 3 months of usage, phone has started to hang occasionally. I make it a point to restart at least once in 2-3 days, to minimize chances of sudden hanging.
• Yu Yuphoria doesn’t have fast charging. Charging from zero to 100% can take lots of time.
• The camera area is unusually large, which means more exposed area and higher risks of damage/scratch to camera area
• There was a screen guard in the box, which is good, but it did not last longer, as it seemed to have lost most of its adhesive power. Had to discard it within days
• Back cover and overall build quality feels cheap.
• If I restart the phone, photos clicked earlier get lost somewhere deep in the gallery if I try to upload them to facebook. The chronological order is kind of lost most of the time. This was very irritating.
• Unlike the Experia U I had 2 years ago, this phone wasn't connecting to WiFi networks automatically when in range. Need to tap WiFi setting to remind the phone that it is in range of a WiFi network previously authenticated.

Verdict: Micromax Yu Yuphoria is a decent budget smartphone overall. It has some shortcomings, but then I don't think any phone will be perfect in all aspects. I like it for its decent camera and am overall satisfied, if not delighted. My plan is to use this for about an year and then buy another phone, so since my expectations were limited, it hasn't disappointed me too much. There are few other decent options at Rs 6000-8000 range, such as 2nd Gen Moto E, Redmi 2 and so on. I haven't used the competition models to give a judgment, but Yu Yuphoria can be seriously considered for purpose. (I won't say buy it blindly).

While I have purchased the Yuphoria, I have Intex Aqua Ace for review right now, which should be coming up next week. Read Samsung A5 review here