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YU Yunicorn India Quick Review, Gaming and Benchmarks

YU Yunicorn was launched earlier today, featuring a 5.5 inch full HD IPS LCD display and an octa-core Mediatek Helio P10 processor. The YU Yunicorn is priced at INR 12,999 for those who buy this in first month, but later it will cost 14,999 and will be available on Flipkart and offline selected stores as well.  It will be available in Black, White and Golden colours.

The release was preceded by a bunch of teasers that the company released on its forums. This has created quite some hype on the internet and we are going to find out if the YU Yunicorn is worth it.

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YU Yunicorn Specifications

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YU Yunicorn Photo Gallery

YU Yunicorn Physical Overview

The YU Yunicorn is a really good looking device. Featuring a fully metallic build, the Yunicorn looks very premium in its price range – you’d almost be fooled about its actual price based purely on the build quality and design.

Most companies these days have managed to reduce the bezel on the sides to a very negligible one. As such, it becomes easier to hold the Yunicorn even though it comes with a 5.5 inch display. However, the top and the bottom do have a considerable amount of bezel. It is more apparent on the top, with there being a fair amount of empty space between the ear piece and the display.

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That being said, the front looks quite good with very few things to distract you. On the top, you will find the ear piece, front camera and the ambient light sensor. Below them there is the 5.5 inch full HD IPS LCD display. The phone comes with on-screen navigation buttons. Just below the display is the fingerprint sensor – a design aspect that we have seen on a lot of phones these days.

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The back of the phone has two strips running across the width of the phone on the top and the bottom. These are for antennas, so your phone can continue to have good connectivity. Just below the top strip, you will find the camera sensor and dual LED flash. Further towards the bottom, you will find the YU logo and some regulatory information.

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Coming to the sides, you will find the hybrid SIM card tray on the left side of the phone.

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On the right side, you will find the power button and the volume rocker.

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The top of the phone houses the 3.5 mm audiojack. Additionally, it also has the secondary mic for noise cancellation.

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The bottom of the Yunicorn houses the microUSB port and the loudspeakers.

YU Yunicorn User Interface

The YU Yunicorn is the first YU smartphone to come with stock Android. While the phones launched prior to the Yunicorn ran on Cyanogen OS, the Yunicorn comes with stock Android 5.1 Lollipop with some additional improvements and additions made by YU. While it’s unfortunate that it is still running on Android 5.1 Lollipop, we’re told that YU is working hard on the Marshmallow update.

Yunicorn

One of the most important additions that YU has made to the software of the Yunicorn is Around YU. Taking inspiration from the Google Now Launcher’s swipe left feature, Around YU service can be launched by swiping left from the homescreen. Doing so will bring up the Around YU service, which allows you to look for places, book a cab or a hotel or flight directly. Right from your homescreen.

For its Around YU service, the company has collaborated with Ola, Oyo and PayTM.

YU Yunicorn Camera Overview

The YU Yunicorn comes with a 13 MP camera on the back with dual tone dual LED flash. We took it out for some tests and clicked pictures in different lighting conditions. Overall, the results were very good. Focusing was quick, and details captured were very adequate. The performance outdoor was quite satisfactory.

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The front camera fared quite well too, with the 8 MP shooter clicking very decent pictures. Overall, considering the price and the rest of the specs, we were satisfied with the camera performance.

Camera Samples

Gaming Performance

The YU Yunicorn comes with an octa core Mediatek MT6755 processor. To test the device’s gaming performance, we installed and played Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 on the phone. With graphics level set to medium, we could enjoy both the games quite well. There were occasional frame drops, but the overall performance was very satisfactory given the price and the SoC used in the phone.

After playing Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 one after the other for 25 minutes, we experienced a 9% drop in the battery level. The phone did not heat up much – the temperature we recorded was 40 degree celsius, but this will vary depending on the type of game and the room temperatures on your side.

YU Yunicorn Benchmarks

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Conclusion

Overall, the YU Yunicorn looks like a very good device for the price it is offered at. The build quality of the phone is very good, even though it looks a little like the Meizu m3 Note. The camera performance is quite average – it is one of the things that the YU Yunicorn falls short on. Additionally, the fact that YU has launched it with Android 5.1 Lollipop in 2016 is disappointing. However, the rest of the aspects – gaming, battery life, value for money are the redeeming factors of the Yunicorn.

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Abhinav Singh

Abhinav Singh, a software engineer who is very much interested in social engineering. He is responsible to manage all the social media profiles of Gadgets To Use. He also has a hobby of tracking new apps and gadgets and to share them with our readers as well.