After botching up its last flagship launch Yutopia, Yu Televentures has unveiled its 2016 flagship smartphone, the Yunicorn today at an expected price of Rs 12,999 in India.
Last year, the company unveiled the Yutopia, which failed to click because of software bugs and some gluing issues with its rear camera lens. As a result, the phone, which was supposed to have been sold via a queue system, was available soon after launch for anyone to buy.
The company said it sold 2 mln phones under its Yu brand in 2015, and its Yureka phone was the most searched smartphone from India.
The new phone is crucial to the survival of the company as pressure has mounted on Indian brands after the entry of Chinese majors like LeEco, Vivo and Gionee.
Currently, India’s affordable smartphone market is dominated by Lenovo, followed closely by Samsung and Xiaomi.
DESIGN
The phone has a brushed aluminum back which, according to the company, will lead to ‘wine’ process of ageing — that is, it will look better and better with wear and usage.
The phone color is ‘rush gold’, and it also features 2.5 D glass.
The screen size is 5.5 inches and the processor is Helio P10 mid-range chipset from MediaTek. The chipset is also found inside the Meizu M3 Note.
It also comes with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory plus expandable memory slots. The 4 GB of RAM should make the phone attractive to those who would otherwise have gone for the Meizu M3 Note, which has only 3 GB of it.
Battery is 4 Ah and rear camera is 13 MP, supported by a 5-MP front camera. The Yunicorn is also one of the few models with a front fingerprint scanner.
Sharma said the phone lasts for 2 days on a single charge for someone like him. “I have been using this phone for a couple of months and have never used something like this.”
The model will be available only on Flipkart.
The full-HD display has 450 cd/square meter, which is about twice as much as that of many models in the market.
The phone will also come with DTS audio.
The company has ditched Cyanogen OS and unveiled a new flavor of the Android operating system called Android on Steroids.
Company head Rahul Sharma said the new OS, developed in India, sticks very close to stock Android from Google.
Among the highlights are a black-and-white mode for reading comfort, easy access to music, and absence of bloatware.
The company’s Around Yu local search app has been upgraded to Version 2 and now includes ‘Doctors’ in addition to transport, food etc. Users, even in remote locations, will be able to consult doctors via video calls — perhaps the first such consumer-facility in the country.
You can watch the live webcast of Yunicorn launch below:
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