YU’s second device, the Yuphoria, appears to be on to a great start. YU have just announced that the Yuphoria has received over 500,000 registrations for the up and coming flash sale – not everybody registered for the device will get one, but the source website, GSM Arena, believe that the majority will. The flash sale is scheduled for 1400 hours IST on Amazon India today at a price of Rs. 6,999, approximately $110. This is a very positive sign for YU although we have seen a number of concerns in online reviews of the Yuphoria, which to date appear to have been ignored by the business.
Nevertheless, the Yuphoria is a significant device for a few reasons. Firstly, because the device runs Cyanogen OS 12. Cyanogen OS 12 is a customized version of Android 5.0 Lollipop developed by Cyanogen; their operating system is known for being highly customizable and offers enhanced performance combined with additional features over and above the stock Android as Google release it. By default, Cyanogen OS 12 looks similar to the stock vanilla Google Android interface although it contains a theming engine, incorporate an App Themer, so it is quick and easy to change the look and feel of the device. Another reason is because the Yuphoria uses a 5.0-inch, 720p resolution screen, so it is closer to a mainstream device rather than a “phablet.” The Cyanogen OS 12 software runs over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, which is a quad core, 64-bit processor clocked at up to 1.2 GHz and incorporating the Adreno 306 graphics hardware. This is an entry level Snapdragon processor based around the power efficient ARM Cortex-A53 processor core. The Snapdragon 410 is the follow up to the highly successful Snapdragon 400 System-on-Chip that was seen in devices such as the Motorola Moto G. In the Yuphoria, YU have given the chipset 2 GB of RAM, which is twice what many devices powered by the Snapdragon 410 receive. The Yuphoria has 16 GB of internal storage plus a MicroSD card slot, which can take cards of up to 128 GB capacity. There’s an 8MP rear camera and a 2,230 mAh battery filling out the specification lists, too. Of course, the elephant in the room and something not on the specification list is that YU is owned by Micromax and the Yuphoria device is a result of the deal between Micromax and Cyanogen, which appears to be related with the fallout between Cyanogen and OnePlus.
Issues that have been reported for the Yuphoria include overheating and freezing, which appear to be down to the operating system and how the device is configured: we have already seen how a software update may be designed to reduce device temperatures by lowering processor clock speeds and voltages and this is one area that Cyanogen OS could easily rectify. However, for the time being and in the absence of our own test model, it is impossible for us to comment further, but we will be watching the sale tomorrow with interest.