Micromax Yu Yuphoria vs Xiaomi Redmi 2: Battle Between Two Outstanding Smartphones

| Updated: Thursday, May 14, 2015, 11:25 [IST]

Micromax unveiled it's latest addition to the YU series of smartphones yesterday called the YUPHORIA at an event in Delhi. It's main competitor is the Xiaomi Redmi 2 which has been around in the market for quite a while now.

Micromax Yu Yuphoria And Xiaomi Redmi 2 In Pictures

Micromax Yu Yuphoria vs Xiaomi Redmi 2: Battle Of Budget Smartphones

Design:

According to Micromax, the Yuphoria has been completely designed and assembled in India. It boasts of a "premium design at affordable prices", says the company. While design maybe subjective, the Yuphoria does pass of as quite a good-looking handset at its price.

While it's almost entirely made of plastic, the company has infused some metal which occupies a thin frame around the entire handset, breaking monotony in the process. The back consists of removable plastic with a slight matte finish that feels good to hold.

Size wise, the YUPHORIA is bigger due to its larger display. It measures 142.38 x 72.96 x 8.25mm as opposed to 134 x 67.2 x 9.4 mm of the Redmi 2. Despite the larger surface area, Micromax has managed to slim down the YUPHORIA's waistline. AS a result, the phone should be just as easy to handle as the Redmi 2.

Overall, although we like the Redmi 2 as far as design aesthetics are concerned, the Yuphoria only looks 'slightly' better. The metal-frame deserves some credit for this; the Redmi 2 is plastic throughout.

Display:

The Redmi 2 has a 4.7″ 720p display while the YUPHORIA has a 5″ 720p display. Both the screen are IPS LCD units however the YUPHORIA gets the newer Gorilla Glass 3 protection while the Redmi 2 does away with Gorilla Glass 2.

The Yuphoria is therefore a better bet if you're looking for a bigger (but not huge) handset at its price. But that's not all that there is to it.

We were pretty pleased with the Yureka's display output, at its price point. And, the Yuphoria doesn't disappoint either.

Software:

The Yu Yuphoria runs Android 5.0.2 based Cyanogen OS 12 out-of-the-box. The Redmi 2 on the other hand comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat with the company's MIUI 6 on top.

We like the fact that the Yuphoria comes with the very latest software, and the Lollipop-based Cyanogen 12 makes everything so fast and seamless. We found the Yuphoria quite a treat to walk with.

Performance:

The Yuphoria is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor coupled with Adreno 306 GPU.

The same processor powers the Redmi 2 (even RAM remains the same). Therefore, although both the Yuphoria and the Redmi 2 should theoretically give you more or less the same performance, there is a slight difference.

In our brief usage, we found the Yuphoria to give out a smoother performance, taking advantage of the underlying Cyanogen OS.

Camera:

Both the phones come with an 8 Megapixel camera on the back along with Autofocus and LED flash. Both the cameras boast 1.4 micro pixel sizes and 1080p video recording.

The YUPHORIA has a metal ring surrounding its camera unit which Micromax calls the Saturn ring. We aren't sure if it is metal or plastic that is made to feel like metal but the Saturn ring will apparently be a common design element in the YU phones that follow.

The YUPHORIA has a superior 5 Megapixel camera as opposed to the 2 Megapixel unit on the Redmi 2.

Storage:

Both the phones support dual microSIMs and microSD cards upto 32GB in capacity. The Redmi 2 has two variants - the 8GB version which comes with 1GB of RAM and a 16GB version that comes with 2GB of RAM. The YUPHORIA comes in a single 16GB variant with 2GB of RAM.

Battery:

Battery wise the YUPHORIA is fitted with a larger 2230 mAH battery compared to the 2200 mAH unit on the Redmi 2. However with the larger sized screen, it remains to be seen which one is the better performer in real life. Both the phones have removable battery covers as well as removable batteries.

Verdict:

YU YUPHORIA comes in two colour variants - Champagne Gold with White and Buffed Steel with Black. The Redmi 2 is available in Black, White, Green, Pink and Yellow.

Both the Yu Yuphoria and the Xiaomi Redmi 2 are similarly priced at Rs.6,999. While the Redmi 2 is officially available via Flipkart, the Yuphoria will retail through Amazon.in.

Our preliminary results show the Yuphoria having a slight edge over the Redmi 2, particularly in terms of display and butter-smooth experience. At the same time, the camera does leave you asking for more to some extent in the Yuphoria.