Micromax has upped the ante in the low-cost smartphone segment.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: After Micromax launched its subsidiary company Yu, tech arena was eagerly waiting to see the unveiling of the first smartphone under new brand that focuses only on e-commerce based flash sales.
After the announcement of the launch of Yureka, a 4G LTE smartphone, it is certain that Micromax has upped the ante in the low-cost-high-end smartphone war, which started with the entry of Xiaomi – the Chinese smartphone makers.
Earlier in 2012, another Indian smartphone manufacturer Lava had launched a subsidiary brand called Xolo, which by now has become an independent brand with an identity of its own.
According to the announcement of Rahul Sharma, the founder of Micromax, the new brand will manufacture only devices that run on Cyanogen based OS, which is a commercial variant of Android operating system, but with customization and features that no other Android firmware has offered till now.
Additionally, Micromax was in a row with the Chinese manufacturer OnePlus for having entered India with Cyanogen based smartphone, when Yu had already made an exclusive deal with Cyanogen for distribution of Cyanogen OS powered phones in India and other South Asian countries. After hearing the case filed by Micromax against OnePlus for infringing their exclusive rights, the court directed OnePlus to back out from selling Cyanogen based smartphone in India. However, it was allowed to sell OnePlus One, the cyanogen based smartphone until the first stock got sold out and strictly banned it from importing any more Cyanogen smartphones to India.
Cyanogen is not a name familiar for Indian smartphone users, but, it has been popular among the hacking community as it offered a wide range of customization for smartphones. Also, the Cyanogen OS provides hackers more control over smartphones and it made easy for them to try different ways of breaking into the Android platforms.
Until yesterday’s release of Yureka, there was no clue about the kind of device Yu had planned to sell in India. But the hype created around the device proved to be true as the smartphone is unchallenged, even by Xiaomi, which has been selling high-end smartphones at price that nobody ever expected.
Yu’s Yureka comes with the slogan “Yu Play God”. Yureka 4G is powered by a Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor which has a 64-bit CPU architecture, featuring integrated 4G LTE for the optimal performance with seamless communications and outstanding battery life. The octa-core processor is coupled with 2 GB RAM and an Adreno 405 GPU for faster processing of applications and heavy graphic games.
The device also features a 16 GB internal memory with 12.5 GB usable space. This can be expanded up to 32 GB using external microSD card.
Coming to the camera department of the new Yu Yureka 4G mobile it has a 13 MP rear camera with Sony sensor and a 5 MP front camera for selfie enthusiasts. The smartphone is backed up by a powerful 2500 mAh battery.
One of the standout features of the new Cyanogen OS is the support to edit privacy for each app. This was a feature many Indian smartphone users expected in Google’s stock Android smartphones. Even though Google asks permission before installing apps, it doesn’t give the option to select the permission after installing the application. In the new Cyanogen OS users can edit permission of each app, for example if a photo sharing app uses the GPS to retrieve information about your location and you don’t want it to go public, then you can easily restrict the permission of the app to access the GPS.
While talking to the press Rahul Sharma said, “Going ahead, it will be about software more than hardware. Customization and service will play an important role in determining the success of a brand. Yu imparts power to consumers to redefine the mobile space in the country by simply giving the control in a user’s hand.”
The new Cyanogen OS also supports 24-bit lossless audio and high-resolution slow-motion video at 60 fps – a max of 120 fps. The device will also have unlockable bootloader, kernel source code and Android build tree. Micromax has also announced that it has no problem what so ever with users rooting the smartphone also they doesn’t have to worry about losing the warranty of the device.
Looking at the specifications offered in Yureka, there is no competitor in the budget price offering a similar product. The HTC Desire 820 is the only device that comes near to the specification of Yu Yureka, but it is priced at Rs 24,000, which is twice the money that one would spend on Yureka.
It is still not clear how many units of Yureka will go on sale on January 13 via Amazon India. But with a price tag as low as Rs 8,999, smartphone enthusiasts will try their best to own the device; at least to check out whether it is worth the hype. The registration for the flash sale is now open in Amazon and users who subscribe to Yureka updates will automatically get a chance to buy the device during the flash sale.