“We take a look at the camera quality of YU’s most affordable offering, the Yunique”
One of the biggest challenges incumbents face against new challengers is the speed with which the latter can adapt to the changing market conditions. Micromax, which was enjoying an unrivalled position in the Indian smartphone market till last year, faced the same issue with the barrage of Chinese brands that entered the landscape and redefined the specs-vs-price balance. However, the brand was quick to notice the changing scenario and decided to take the competition head on by introducing a new online-only venture dubbed YU.
It’s interesting that its offerings rank high in the popularity in every segment it has entered till now. It’s now hoping to repeat the same feat by targeting first-time smartphone buyers with the Yunique (first impressions), which is priced aggressively at Rs 4,999.
While our review will talk in detail about its real-life performance, let’s first check out its camera prowess. Even though the Yunique s an entry-level device, it features an 8-megapixel snapper at the back and a 2MP front-facing camera. It also has an LED flash to supplement the primary shooter while capturing images in low-light environments. Now, let’s check its quality by taking a look at the images captured by the YU Yunique in a number of situations.
Table of Contents
Long shot
A landscape shot is the best way to gauge the capabilities of a camera, since it offers so many objects in view and you can also check for the details being captured. The 8-megapixel snapper on the YU Yunique is able to do a decent job in this case, as all the subjects are visible and it remains relatively sharp even when zoomed in. However, the colours reproduced seem to be slightly dull.
Close up
The close-up image looks really impressive, as it’s vibrant and sharp, plus the bokeh effect adds to its charm. However, if you notice closely, then it seems that the Yunique has a tight focus as apart from the flower in focus and its surrounding leaves, other flowers are quite blurry… much more than the usual bokeh results seen from other devices.
Close up (zoomed in)
In terms of details being captured, the device scores quite well since even after magnifying in to the same image, though there’s some softness visible on the edges of the petals.
HDR off
With HDR mode becoming quite popular, we have taken the above shot to see whether turning on the dynamic range will improve it. As such, the image looks good, but colours are quite dull.
HDR on
Instead of improving the shot, it seems that the HDR mode has done the reverse effect as it has overdone the contrast. All the colours of the objects have become darker, which is making it look extremely artificial.
Front shot
If you’re a selfie-enthusiast, then the YU Yunique might not suit your needs well, though for most people, its 2MP front-facing offers decent quality of images. The image above shows vibrant colours, even though the sharpness isn’t very impressive.
Low-light shot
Even in low light, the YU Yunique has managed to capture the object and its colours well. You can easily make out the different leaves and berries on the artificial plant.
Low-light shot (with flash)
With flash turned on, the same plant looks even better as not only the leaves and berries are visible, but the texture of the base as well. That said, the flash seems to be too powerful for our liking, as can be seen from the strong reflection.
Night shot
With street light as the only light source, the shot embedded above suggests that the YU Yunique can capture good images. All the flowers and the plant have been reproduced well, and it’s only when you zoom in to the original resolution, you’d notice the amount of noise and pixelation.
While the YU Yunique isn’t a great shooter, the images are decent, especially when you bring its pricing into consideration. It’s able to capture good details, and colours are reproduced well in case of the close-up shots, although long shots show dull colours. The HDR mode is quite strong, which makes it unusable. It remains to be seen whether the YU Yunique can impress us overall, which our review will throwing light upon. So stay tuned for that.
