“The YU Yuphoria’s snappers put to the test”
While the premium smartphone segment has always been high on innovation and drool-inducing features, the budget performance arena has been mainly a tug of war between price and specs. Brands want to cram in as much as possible to stretch the performance and features to never heard of levels, while keeping the price as low as it can go. This is good news for buyers of course, and a certain brand called YU has a new offering that falls right in the centre of the same category – offering compelling specs for the price. We’re referring to the YU Yuphoria (first impressions), the latest budget smartphone to hit the Indian market. For a very affordable Rs 6,999, you get a stylish-looking dual-SIM smartphone that offers a 64-bit Snapdragon quad-core processor, along with healthy 2GB of RAM and 16 gigs of expandable storage. Also on offer is 4G support, plus the very notable Cyanogen OS 12 platform with Android Lollipop. With so much stuff packed in, it certainly looks like a VFM deal. Our upcoming review will lay all your doubts to rest, but for now, we want to see how it fares when it comes to shooting prowess. The Yuphoria sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and a 5MP front shooter with a 4P lens and 85-degree wide angle view.
The camera app comes from Cyanogen, and offers the same interface and features we’ve seen on the OnePlus One (review), and the Yuphoria’s sibling, the Yureka (review). In keeping with the overall ethos of the platform, the camera app is minimalistic, but hides quite a few settings and tweaks underneath. The available modes can be changed by swiping up or down on the screen, and cover the likes of HDR, Aqua, Action, Night, and Beauty, among others. Let’s go clickety-click with the smartphone and take a look at a few image samples.
Table of Contents
Long shot
Despite the fact that the skies were a tad overcast when we shot this, the image above shows good colour balance and sharpness. This camera sample from the YU Yuphoria proves that it can shoot quite well, at least with good ambient lighting.
Close up
The pink flower has been shot at close quarters, and again, the Yuphoria manages to impress with its shooting capabilities. We think the colours have come out well, and there’s a lot of detail visible without any signs of blurriness. The background is defocussed nicely too.
Close up (zoomed)
Magnifying the same image, there’s some softness evident. Overall though, we think that the colours look good… and those leaves and the petals show ample detail for this to be a worthy shot.
HDR off
Not really a very impressive shot this one, if we can say so ourselves. However, we won’t blame the Yuphoria for this, since it was shot facing harsh light. The sky looks completely devoid of colour and washed out. The objective is to see how the HDR mode can handle these conditions.
HDR on
Turning on the HDR mode certainly helps quite a bit. As you can see, the scene has transformed completely, and the details on those trees look much better. The sky however, seems to have magically appeared, with the blue shades and even the clouds visible.
Front camera
The Hulk is always angry, but the image quality we see bodes well for the front shooter on the Yuphoria. It scores high on colour, sharpness and detail… which means selfie-lovers shouldn’t be disappointed with the results they get.
Night shot
Smartphone cameras and the night have always been at loggerheads, and in most cases, we’ve seen darkness win. As abysmal as that might sound, it’s the hard reality. Profound statements, aside, the Yuphoria does a fair job at night, but the blurriness and noise are clearly visible. At least there are no light streaks.
Low light
The Hulk finally meets its nemesis, as the darkness surrounds him and renders this shot too grainy and blotchy to be share-worthy. On the positive side, the Hulk is green, and this shot confirms that.
Low light (with flash)
The wide-eyed look was there even before the flash fired, we assure you. With the flash on, the Yuphora fares much better and the shot looks crisp and well illuminated. The flash doesn’t blow out the details, which is a good thing.
In a nutshell, the YU Yuphoria’s snappers don’t make us euphoric, but are reasonably good. It’s not that we haven’t seen better shots, but considering its budget price point, the Yuphoria’s imaging prowess looks good enough for casual usage. The tale will continue and delve deeper into the smartphones overall capabilities in our full review, and we hope you’ll stick around to see if the ending is a happy one or not.
