You Unicorn Review
Through U Unicorn, the company has repeated its old efforts, but more focus has been given on software and service. This smartphone is in the range of Rs 15,000. This handset is going to face a tough challenge in this price range. Will the Yu Unicorn smartphone be able to challenge Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Review), Lenovo ZUK Z1 (Review) and Moto G4 Plus (Review)? Let’s try to find out.
Look and Design
One look at the phone, and we can confidently say that the Unicorn is the best looking U smartphone yet. The metal unibody is well made. The brushed look adds to the beauty of the phone. This phone is very slim with a thickness of 8.5 mm. The weight of 172 grams is a bit heavy but with use we got used to it. The front panel of the phone looks like Oppo F1 Plus while the rear camera section reminds us of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. It is not surprising that the design is the same, but we like some newness in terms of design.
The 5.5-inch full-HD display has enough pixel density for sharp pictures and text. There is no problem in reading on this display in sunlight. Touch response is also good. NEG protective glass is provided on the screen. The borders made on both sides of the screen are quite slim. There’s a notification light above it and a physical home button at the bottom. The physical home button has a fingerprint sensor integrated into it, which works well for unlocking the phone.
A single hybrid dual-SIM tray is on the left. Power and volume buttons on the right side. There is some difficulty in pressing these buttons. The headphone socket is at the top and the micro-USB port is at the bottom. There are speaker grills on either side of the USB port. Dual tone LED flash is provided in the rear along with 13 megapixel camera. Battery cannot be removed. The Unicorn will come with a 10-watt power adapter, data cable and in-ear headset. One thing has to be acknowledged that the quality of accessories provided by the company has improved.
Specifications and Software
In Yu Unicorn, the company has used octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 chipset and 4 GB RAM. With this you will get 32 GB storage which can be expanded up to 128 GB via microSD card. It is equipped with Wi-Fi B/G/N, Bluetooth 4.1, USB-OTG and GPS. NFC and FM radio features are not present.
Talking about software, almost stock version of Android Lollipop 5.1 is available which the company has named ‘Android on Stroids’. Enhanced Launch has a custom icon set and a new version of the You Around feature. U Wallet is also present in the new around service. Using this you will be able to use your mobile, DTH or data card.
There are not many apps in it. But useful apps like file manager, sound recorder and UUniverse web browser are available. Unicorn has cloud service available on which you can keep backup of SMS, contacts, call log settings and WhatsApp data.
performance
Yu Unicorn does a good job at multitasking. Be it loading apps or playing games. Overall this is a good modern smartphone. The phone did not get too hot during use. This complaint was received while charging a little and playing games. The phone also worked well on our 4G network. The metal back is a bit slippery. Once or twice during use this handset almost fell from our hands. The performance is such that you will be able to play most games easily.
The phone also works well in multimedia playback. Adequate sound comes from the speaker. The music player is integrated with the Gaana app and also has an equalizer.
There is a 13-megapixel camera equipped with electronic image stabilization and five-element lens in the rear part. Photos taken with it in daylight come with good colors. However, while cropping the photos you will find that they lack detail. The focus around the object is not very sharp even in close-up shots. In HDR mode the photo comes with ghosting effect. This deficiency was also there in U Utopia. The biggest problem is the slow focus system which is a problem even during the day. The camera app takes about a second to lock focus. After this, it takes a second or two to save the image.
This problem becomes more pronounced in low light. The Yu Unicorn completely lags behind in low light and indoor shooting. The quality of the recorded video can be called decent. You also get a slow motion mode but the resolution is limited to 640 pixels. The 5-megapixel front camera takes decent pictures in good lighting. Overall, the Unicorn’s camera is not its most important feature. If this is the most important feature for you then consider another phone.
battery life
The 4000 mAh battery present in the handset lasted for 14 hours and 46 minutes in our video loop test. In normal use the phone easily lasted for one and a half days. The lack of fast charging is annoying, but with the charger provided with it, you can get 20 percent battery in just half an hour of charge.
our decision
The price of Yu Unicorn is Rs 12,999. But this is the launch price. After one month this handset will be available for Rs 13,499. The company is also working to deliver this handset to some offline stores. The most important features of Yu Unicorn are build quality, design, battery life and interesting software services. There are some shortcomings too, such as weak camera performance, weight, and lack of FM radio and Wi-Fi support.
We can understand that it is very difficult to make a phone that provides excellent performance in all departments, especially at this price point. However, users shopping in this price range are not looking for a premium phone. They want an all-rounder handset. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, Lenovo ZUK Z1 and Moto G4 Plus offer all these things. In such a situation, it will not be easy for the unicorn to stand up to these challenges.
