Apart from the rhetoric, it is clear that Yu is eyeing Chinese smartphone manufacturers OnePlus, Xiaomi, Gionee and Oppo, which have been offering “flagship handsets” at affordable prices in the Indian market for a long time. Through Yu Utopia, the company is trying to offer a perfect smartphone, while also keeping in mind that it should be within the reach of the user’s pocket.
Yu Televentures’ efforts are in the right direction. Has the company been successful in achieving anything from this? Does Utopia’s performance justify the company’s claims? Let’s find out.
Look and design
The aluminium and magnesium chassis is one of the key features of this handset. It gives a premium feel. The phone is slim, but not so light that it feels like you are holding a toy in your hands. The satin texture makes the phone slippery in your hands. We wish you had provided a bumper case with the handset.
The primary SIM tray and the secondary hybrid tray are housed in a single flap on the left side. On the right side are the volume and power buttons, which are sturdy and easily accessible. The headphone socket and micro-USB 2.0 port are located at the top and bottom respectively.
There is a circular dial at the rear that houses the 21-megapixel camera and a dual-tone LED flash unit. There is a fingerprint sensor below the rear camera and a speaker grill at the bottom. As expected, the glass cover of the camera is not scratch free and we noticed marks on it after just two days of use. This is another important reason to buy a cover for the handset.
There is a 5.2 inch Quad HD IPS display on the front which has Corning’s Concore Glass protection. Color reproduction and viewing angles are good. There is no problem in reading on the handset even in sunlight. However, for this you will have to adopt some software tricks. Touch response can sometimes trouble you, we faced this problem many times during the review. This problem does not happen often, but you will be troubled at times. The notification LED is at the bottom.
With the Yu Utopia, you will get a transfer cable, a charger that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, a Little Bird in-ear headset and an instruction manual. The quality of the accessories is good and they feel long-lasting. Overall, the Yu Utopia is a good looking phone that is designed in a way that the user does not have any problem in using it with one hand. It would have been better if scratch protection was provided for the camera bump.
Specifications and software
In terms of specifications, Yu Televentures has tried to do its best. You get the best Snapdragon 810 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. The storage can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card. Other features include dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, USB OTG and FM radio. NFC is missing and wireless charging is also not provided. Apart from other standard sensors, Utopia also has a barometer sensor. The handset has a 3000mAh battery that supports fast charging.
The Yu Utopia will run on Cyanogen OS 12.1 which is based on Google’s Android Lollipop 5.1.1. It will soon get an update based on Marshmallow. The page sometimes freezes on the first boot after default. So we would suggest you to switch to some other page. The Yu theme provided by Cyanogen is quite good, it shows the Wi-Fi and cellular status correctly.
In U Utopia, the company has introduced its new software service Around You, with the help of which you will be able to do many tasks on the same platform, like booking a cab and booking a hotel.
Apart from this, uUniverse app is also provided. This is a customization of Opera Turbo for Utopia. Cyanogen has done a great job in audio. AudioFX app gives you the option to choose different profiles for speakers and headsets. Apart from this, you also get DTS sound feature. The stock music player has been integrated with Gaana music streaming app. And the results are excellent.
Performance
After removing the default theme, the Yu Yutopia performs as expected. App performance is good and multitasking is also smooth. On average, you will always have 2GB of RAM left for apps. The Snapdragon 810 chipset heats up even after performing simple tasks. The handset gets very hot around the rear camera, especially while playing games and shooting videos. Sadly, there is no cure for this problem when the fault lies in the chipset itself. Call quality is good and 4G connectivity is available on both SIM slots.
You can store up to five fingerprints and use them to unlock the phone. It can also be used to take selfies in the camera app. The sensor is not very accurate, it will sometimes misidentify your fingerprint. At times, it will not even register the fingerprint. It seems to be working with a mind of its own. The handset performed well in benchmark tests.
The Little Bird headset from House of Marley is another great accessory that comes with the Utopia. We didn’t like the video player app very much. The rear speaker is not very powerful and becomes weak when used outdoors.
The 21-megapixel rear camera is capable of taking close-ups and landscape shots with detail, although there should be adequate lighting. You can choose different shooting modes by swiping up or down. You will be able to easily access the flash, front camera, white balance and shooting mode.
The camera does not focus quickly and becomes very slow in low light. The HDR mode did not work well. Photos in this mode came out blurry and unnatural.
Optical image stabilization will help in taking smooth videos. Surprisingly, its 8 megapixel front camera works well. The pictures taken with this camera come with details.
The 3000mAh battery lasted 8 hours and 57 minutes in our video loop test. This is not bad, but it could have been better. In normal use, the phone’s battery will last an average of 18-20 hours. The good thing is that it supports Quick Charge 2.0.
Our verdict
It won’t be wrong to call Yu Utopia a good premium effort from Yu Televentures. But it is not as powerful as the company claims. Just fitting top end specifications in a device of a certain budget does not make a great product. Yu Utopia has many features too. Excellent 2K display, great build, attractive finish, quick charging, great multimedia and service and good quality accessories, you will get all this with Yu Utopia.
However, there is still room for improvement in many departments. Hopefully these shortcomings will be removed in the next version. The fingerprint sensor present in this handset sometimes works and sometimes does not. Battery life could have been better. The camera performance is not up to expectations and the handset getting heated due to the 810 chipset is not a new thing. We would like NFC and wireless charging features in the next version.
For Rs 25,000, the OnePlus 2 is a much better option. If you want a device with higher resolution, the LG G3 is still a great option at this price point.