Five Engineers, 42 Days: How Flipkart Built an 'App' for the Mobile Web

Flipkart's new mobile web experience Flipkart Lite, which launched on Monday, brings an app-like experience to the mobile Web.

Amar Nagaram, Director - Engineering at Flipkart gave Gadgets 360 a behind the scenes look at how Flipkart Lite was built, including an account of the low-level APIs used to create the advanced Web app, which enables instant access, offline functionality, push notifications, and a rendering performance of 60 fps, in standard test conditions.

"We know a thing or two about Web technologies," says Nagaram, explaining how Flipkart managed to pull off what's being seen as a global exclusive, at least in terms of scale.

"It was all done by five engineers in a matter of 42 days," he says. "There was a lot of learning in the process. It was not like we discovered the silver bullet, and it was all hunky dory from there. There was a lot of back and forth, the Google team was very helpful. We gave a lot of suggestions, they were very quick in turning things around for us,"

"What we did, along with Chrome was to bring these technologies to the mobile, to the browser, and we showed what that can do to a mobile site," Nagaram adds. "We want to bring whatever is on the native app onto Lite. The idea is that Flipkart Lite will drop its Lite tag at some point in the future."

"In terms of feature parity, not in terms of its lightness in terms of memory footprint," he quickly clarifies.

One of the many strengths of Flipkart Lite, Nagaram says, is that its behaviour is network strength agnostic; it was designed to work consistently and reliably on all networks. "If you see Flipkart Lite on a 2G network, there's not much of a difference in its performance," he claims.

Nagaram goes into the details of some of the tools used in Flipkart Lite in a blog post - Service Workers, a scriptable network proxy, can be used to serve a response from the cache when the user is offline. Web Push API was used to enable Push Notifications even when the browser is closed. He also provides links to specific features like Add to Home Screen, detailing GPU friendly animations used to keep rendering performance at 60 frames per second.

"Native apps use splash screen to hide the slow loading of home screen. Web never had this luxury and there was a blank page staring at the user before home screen could load up. Good news is the latest version of Chrome supports generation of a splash screen that radically improves the launch experience and perceived performance of the Web app," the blog post explains.

"We are 60 frames per second on many devices, but due to Android fragmentation we cannot say it out loud on all devices. That is something we are striving continuously to work towards," Nagaram later told Gadgets 360.

Flipkart's future roadmap includes bringing features like Ping and visual search on the mobile Web. "What we've done so far is just the beginning. There's a list of about five or six things that we wanted from browser vendors," says Nagaram. "The idea is to get as close as we can to the native app. So we want much richer and much deeper access to hardware which can make search and Ping possible. We want much richer and contextual permissions from the user, unlike Android, where you take a blanket set of permissions."

"What we are proposing to the Web community, to the browser community - we want to take contextual permissions so the user knows why he's giving the permission," he adds, hoping browsers will one day have access to the same kind of device information and resources that a native app does today. "The user has an option to say no if he doesn't want it."

And there are some definite advantages to this approach. Unlike apps that need to be updated, Web experiences carry a lesser security burden, and bear a smaller memory footprint. The question is whether such functionality can be extended to other browsers as well, or whether it will be locked to Google's Chrome.

According to data provided by Statcounter, which tracks usage share for browsers, UC Browser has a dominating marketshare of 54.4 percent in India, Opera has a 20.21 percent marketshare, Chrome comes third, with 13.46 percent marketshare, while Android's default browser comes fourth, with 5.21 percent marketshare. With Flipkart Lite's technology dependent on the Chromium engine, the user experience is currently limited to only a small subsection of people who use Opera, Chrome, or Android's default browser. It's also worth noting that Chrome on iOS does not support Flipkart Lite. All things considered, Flipkart Lite will benefit less than half of India's mobile browsers right now, though Flipkart insists "it will be extended to other browsers as well in future."

Nagaram didn't want to comment on whether the Flipkart-owned Myntra, which is currently app only, would follow suit and return to the Web. "I head the technology team on Flipkart [and can't speak for Myntra], but there's no reason why not," he says. "We are hoping many app-only companies will follow. There is no reason for Uber to be only on your app."

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Trai's Draft on OTT Regulations Goes Far Beyond Telecom for No Reason

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) released its draft consultation paper on the regulatory framework for over the top (OTT) services last week. There are severalissues with this paper ranging from language that hides its meaning, cherry picking examples of net neutrality while ignoring those that don't agree with its decisionsproposals, and drawing inferences about losses to telecom providers without real justification.

The problem is that the term OTT, as defined in the paper, is far reaching and refers to all apps and services you can access online - from Gmail, to Facebook, to news websites like NDTV.com or even apps like Uber or Foodpanda.

The issue goes beyond simply net neutrality, though that is an important one for all Indians. However, Trai's guidelines go well beyond the telecom industry, and start to look at things like health, social sentiment, and the concerns of brick and mortar businesses. This does not really seem relevant in a paper that is meant to understand the impact of Internet businesses on telecom providers.

You can read the consultation paper yourself on the Trai website. The regulator is seeking the views of all stakeholders by April 24 - that includes consumers like you and me - and we would strongly urge our readers to go read this article and then send your comments to advgos@trai.gov.in to let your government know what you want from it.

We read through the complicated 118 page document and while we certainly won't call ourselves experts on the subject, there are some passages that seemed particularly worrying, and didn't seem to belong in this discussion at all. We already highlighted the biggest telecom related issues in the paper, but here are some of the passages from the draft that seem completely tangential.

The argument that Internet services disrupt brick and mortar businesses, and therefore need to be regulated by Trai seems pretty random. That online businesses are disrupting traditional models is clear. Discounts have reportedly cost e-commerce sites around Rs. 1,000 crore in losses and this behaviour appears in many ways anti-competitive.

However, these are questions that have little to do with telecom, which is Trai's mandate, and don't belong in this paper. An app shouldn't require a green-light from Trai before it can be distributed in India.

Trai also raises the dreaded spectre of hacking - and describes the Internet as a car parking lot that a thief is prowling through - this kind of alarmist language is misleading, and perhaps even more importantly, simply allowing people to access apps and websites can't be blamed for these things. Unless the Trai is suggesting some sort of a safety net, the overall implication of these two points is that we should just not have Internet access in India.

Apart from thieves in parking lots, predators, stalkers, bullies and con artists fill the Internet in Trai's eyes. Children need to avoid file sharing, chat rooms, and online gaming. You can almost imagine someone saying: "When we were kids we didn't have any of this Internet stuff. If you wanted to play, you went outside and had fun."

Cyberbullying and (gasp!) "sexting" (their quotation marks, not ours) are the scary phrases of the day, that are apparently made possible by OTTs. Of course, you could argue that it's the prevalence of smartphones that has caused this in the first place, so perhaps Trai can issue a mobile license, which will be required to operate a smartphone, much like a driving license.

Companies like Ola and Uber are also disrupting the taxi industry, and this, Trai believes, should be regulated. We agree wholeheartedly. However, taxi companies should be regulated as taxi companies - the fleets that these companies are hiring operate very differently from their business in the West, and come closer to acting like radio taxi fleets than private car hire.

This seems to be an issue for the Transport department - which is in fact already looking into taxi apps - and not Trai.

Trai also seems to believe that consumer protection laws do not apply to e-commerce websites, which is quite strange. If a site is the seller, why can't you name it as the respondent in case of any issues? And in the case of a marketplace model, the seller is still made clear, and contactable, when you make a purchase. The laws of the land shouldn't cease to exist simply because something is online, and you shouldn't require special laws for the Internet, as was proved by the Supreme Court of India recently.

It is also quite interesting that while Trai in other parts of this document complains that OTT services make it hard for the government to access your data, in this point, it goes so far as to say that Big Data (not Big Brother) is watching. The use of term 'Big Data' aside, this is actually a point we are in agreement with Trai - not that OTTs shouldn't collect data, but the government should have some provisions guaranteeing the privacy of citizens. The catch is that this should be universal, and not something that the government can violate on whim.

Here, we see Trai worrying that tech-savvy thieves will use your GPS information to rob your house while you're out. As you can see though, the regulator is a little conflicted because it says that these apps could be useful for law enforcement. These are actual concerns that need to be debated, but again, Trai does not seem to be the ideal forum to debate issues of national security.

Cultural sensitivity is a bogey that is raised fairly often in Trai's draft consultation paper. Here, the regulator talks about how social media was used to send inflammatory photos targeting students from the North East in 2012. This is problematic because Trai seems to be suggesting that we should not have the option to communicate quickly on social platforms that allow messages to disseminate quickly, in the name of cultural sensitivity. In a paper whose main thrust is that OTTs are hurting telco revenues, this feels like an emotional point being scored that isn't really relevant to the key argument in the first place.

These are just a few samples of how the Trai paper seems to want to focus on all issues that are not related to net neutrality and telecom. At a time when our providers use Fair Usage Policies to offer limited plans they call "Unlimited", where Airtel was considering special fees so that Skype calls aren't cheaper than voice calls, when billing is often erroneous, never transparent, and our call and data services are barely acceptable, it seems that Trai should be looking at what the telcos can do better, instead of helping them to do nothing new and still make more money.

Once again, please read the paper and write to Trai before April 24. It's for all of us.

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Samsung Gives Away Free Galaxy S6 Phones to Loyal Galaxy S Owners

Samsung Korea is giving away its new flagship smartphone to loyal Galaxy S owners in South Korea, a local newspaper reports. The company offered the new Samsung Galaxy S6 to SK Telecom customers who either bought all Galaxy S-series smartphones or were still using the Galaxy S1, which was launched back in 2010.

The South Korean electronics giant on Tuesday held an event to reward its loyal customers, and the report adds the customers were also given one year's worth of free calls on SK Telecom. The South Korean mobile operator claimed that 15 million customers of its customers had used at least one Galaxy S-series smartphone while 17,000 were still using the Galaxy S1.

Additionally, the operator revealed that more than 1,600 consumers bought all the 13 Galaxy S-series handsets unveiled in the country, while 2,400 people bought more than 10.

Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S6 was initially unveiled at MWC and was launched in India last month at Rs. 49,900 for the 32GB variant.

The Galaxy S6 feature 5.1-inch Quad HD (1440x2560 pixels) Super Amoled display with a pixel density of 577ppi. The new Samsung Galaxy S6 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core (quad-core 2.1GHz+ quad-core 1.5GHz) processor coupled with 3GB of RAM (LPDDR4). Three storage variants are available: 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB.

There is a 16-megapixel rear camera with OIS (optical image stabilisation) and LED flash while there is a 5-megapixel front camera on board. The new premium Galaxy handset also packs fingerprint scanning with an enhanced touch-type fingerprint scanner on the home button. Additionally, the handset comes pre-installed with upgraded Samsung Knox. It also comes preloaded with Microsoft apps such as OneNote and OneDrive with 115GB cloud storage free for 2 years.

The Galaxy S6 is backed by a 2550mAh battery and for connectivity supports LTE Cat. 6 featuring up to 300Mbps download speeds and support for India's 4G LTE networks as well.

Samsung Galaxy S6

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

5.10-inch

Processor

1.5GHz

Front Camera

 5-megapixel

Resolution

 1440x2560 pixels

RAM

 3GB

OS

 Android 5.0

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

16-megapixel

Battery capacity

2550mAh

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Xiaomi Mi 5 to Launch With MIUI 7 Based on Android 5.1 Lollipop

Xiaomi, the company often referred to as China's Apple, has teamed up with the Android Open Kang Project (popularly known as AOKP) for its MIUI 7 custom user interface based on Android 5.1 Lollipop.

The news was confirmed via AOKP's official blog that revealed both Xiaomi and Team Kang were working closely on MIUI 7, which will debut on the next flagship smartphone, the Mi 5. For the uninitiated, AOKP develops custom Android ROMs for smartphones and tablets, much like what Cyanogen does with CyanogenMod.

The blog said, "With all the pieces of the deal in place, I wish to announce that all Team Kang members are working with Xiaomi on a new and refreshed MIUI 7, which will be finally based on Android 5.1, and be coming on the Mi 5."

The company revealed that MIUI 7 is internally codenamed MiKangy, which will see a new take on the Android UI. It added that the new UI will include popular features from top ROMs such as CyanogenMod, ParanoidAndroid, Omni, and AOKP to "create an experience which completely submerges the user in his own world."

The ROM maker stresses that the upcoming UI of the Mi 5 will evolve with the user and after few months of usage, the UI of each Mi 5 handset will have personalised features.

According to the company, MarcLandis will lead the technical development of MIUI 7 aka MiKangy, while Zaphod will oversee the product development.

The ROM maker also claimed that the tie-up with Xiaomi won't affect the future of AOKP, discarding any acquisition rumours - if any.

Xiaomi earlier this week announced a price cut for the Mi 4, which ties-in well with the company's plans for the Mi 5 release expected this year.

The Xiaomi Mi 4 will retail at CNY 1,799 (approximately Rs. 18,000) for the 16GB variant down from the previous price tag of CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs. 20,000). While a 'lite' variant of the Xiaomi Mi 4 with 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB, will retail at CNY 1,699 (approximately Rs. 17,000) - a CNY 100 price cut from the earlier price of CNY 1,799. Notably, both the Mi 4 variants would be available at reduced priced starting April 8.

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Asus ZenFone 2 to Launch in India by Last Week of April

The Asus ZenFone 2 is set to launch in India by the last week of April, as per a company statement on Monday - in-line with an earlier statement by Asus Taiwan that'd tipped an April launch. The much-anticipated smartphone has several variants, including one with a 5-inch display and a few with 5.5-inch displays, and with memory up to 4GB of RAM.

The top-end Asus ZenFone 2 model (ZE551ML) with 64GB of built-in storage and 4GB of RAM was also recently revealed by the firm, with a price of TWD 9,990 (roughly Rs. 19,900).

Earlier this month, Asus Taiwan had revealed the pricing of all the models of the new ZenFone 2 series. The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM, and 32GB storage) was priced at TWD 8,990 (approximately Rs. 18,000); the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (2GB RAM) at TWD 6,990 (approximately Rs. 13,900); the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE550ML at TWD 5,990 (approximately Rs. 11,900), and the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE500CL priced at TWD 4,990 (approximately Rs. 9,900).

All variants of the Asus ZenFone 2 run the company's new ZenUI based on Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop, and feature Intel Atom SoCs. The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB) features a 64-bit 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, while the 2GB of RAM model features a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3560. The ZenFone 2 ZE550ML is also powered by the same Intel Atom Z3560 chipset. The basic ZenFone 2 ZE500CL model features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor. All the versions support expandable storage via microSD card (up to 64GB).

Asus earlier this month also launched new smartphone accessories named ZenFlash and LolliFlash

Asus ZenFone 2

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

5.50-inch

Processor

2.3GHz

Front Camera

 5-megapixel

Resolution

 1080x1920 pixels

RAM

 4GB

OS

 Android 5.0

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery capacity

3000mAh

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Going beyond basic Analytics: Making HR strategic

Going beyond basic Analytics: Making HR strategic

Advanced statistical modeling, data-based algorithms and analysis and its `predictive and prescriptive ability’ are hot requirements in the world of HR today.

Despite its process-driven approach HR has been largely dependent on the professional’s intuition. With increased focus on lowering the cost per employee, HR departments and consultancies are adopting a data driven analytics approach for greater accountability. Companies are increasingly relying on the strength this new data-based objectivity brings to businesses.

“The constant quest of `getting the right people for the right job at the best cost and time’ is getting more algorithm-based analytics,” says Yeshaswini Ramaswamy, e2e people solutions. “Corporates are looking to HR for a more strategic role in business operations. With this development the expectation today is to adopt a more data-based objectivity, a language that businesses understand, for the entire HR process.”

HR consultancies that have adopted this scientific method have been able to highlight the benefits of using data while making people decisions, thereby providing greater trackable objectivity. These processes are increasingly being incorporated by not just large MNCs and fast growing SMEs but even startups.

This data driven approach to HR management has given rise to a relatively new skill called HR analytics. Nearly 24 per cent organisations are seeking analytical skills while hiring HR personnel, according to a TimesJobs.com study.

HR analytics

Today, HR analytics is not just a simple head count or employee score or attrition data that HR was expected to do previously,” says Vishnu Sarja, HR head, Uniprof Technologies. “It is much more than simple tracking and evaluation that the HR departments were following previously.”

At the core of HR analytics lies data algorithms which are used today in making people decisions across an employee lifecycle. “HR analytics is a data driven approach that carefully analyses correlated data, which has been systematically collected through the employee’s work-cycle,” says Sarja. “A careful analysis of the data with suitable interpretation results in improved talent management decisions. Thus, it is not purely data management but effective interpretation of the available data.”

The HR community seems to be welcoming this new trend. “For quite some time now the HR community has been considered a core contributor to decisions directly impacting the company’s bottom-line. Now, with the ability to actually demonstrate the value-add that the various HR activities bring to the table, backed by data and analysis, the C-level are able to see the benefit that HR analytics brings to the top-line and the bottom-line,” says Ramaswamy.

HR analytics brings in a metrics approach which showcases aspects such as `efficiency-level analysis’ which also help in lowering the HR cost per employee. Several companies have taken this further and developed algorithms which are able to evaluate `efficiency metrics’ of employee engagement, satisfaction and retention.

“Extensive use of advanced statistical modeling and analysis enables `predictive analysis’, which goes a long way in providing information about employee requirement, satisfaction and retention. This, in turn, can be extended to provide prescriptive analytics which helps the management take preventive steps to address future employee issues,” says Sarja.

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Huawei Honor 6 review: High-end specs at affordable price

The year 2014 witnessed the rise of the 'value for money,' 'feature loaded' smartphone category from Chinese companies, once a domain of only domestic players. The big difference is that these phones are much better built; they don't just boast of 'high-end specifications' on paper, but also offer good performance.

Huawei, the Chinese network equipment and devices giant, is the latest entrant to the club. The company has now decided to keep its 'Honor' sub-brand for devices exclusively sold online. This allows companies like Huawei to reduce distribution and marketing costs and offer phones closer to their production price.

Honor 6 is the company's first phone to be sold exclusively on e-commerce website Flipkart. The phone ticks all the right checkboxes when it comes to hardware specifications and features. But we were keen to know if Honor 6 was worth its Rs 20,000 price tag despite very good specifications? Here is our review.

Build and design
Honor 6 doesn't really feature a path breaking design. The phone reminded us of the iPhone 4S with its straight lines, rounded corners, almost flat edges and glass finish back. The design pattern on the back is similar to the one found on the Nexus 4 and Panasonic Eluga U.



The phone feels solid thanks to its unibody design but the glass back felt slippery making the phone susceptible to drops. It would be ideal to use a back case with the phone to enhance grip.

The front is dominated by a 5-inch display, part of a glass panel that also houses a chrome earpiece, sensor array and the front camera. There are no physical buttons at the front.

The three edges of the phone (top, right and left) sport a metallic looking frame. The right edge features the volume rocker key, power key and a flap that hides the micro-sim and microSD card slots. The 3.5mm headset port sits at the top along with an Infrared port, while the micro-USB port is at the bottom.

As mentioned, the glass back has a dotted texture and also holds the rear camera and dual-LED flash, along with a chrome speaker grill. There's some minimalist 'Honor' branding at the back as well.



Overall, the phone is well constructed but there's not much innovation from Huawei, when it comes to design.

Display
Huawei Honor 6 sports a 5-inch Full HD (1080p, 441ppi, 16:9) in-cell display manufactured by JDI. The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and a fingerprint resistant coating. We did observe that the phone's display was less prone to smudging.

Text and pictures appeared crisp and sharp and the viewing angles were pretty good. Sunlight legibility was also decent. Touch sensitivity was also great and the screen was extremely responsive. You can turn on the glove mode for increased sensitivity.

We were impressed with the display's brightness and colour rendering. The phone offers a control for colour temperature in addition to brightness.

Software
Huawei Honor 6 runs Android 4.4 with the company's Emotion UI skin version 2.3. The software looks totally different from stock version of Android. The UI also includes on-screen navigation buttons.

The phone's default UI is devoid of an app drawer and app icons and widgets are spread across the home screens. The unified home screen-app launcher style may come across as user-friendly to people who have not used an Android phone before. But it will take some time to get used to if you have already been using an Android smartphone. You can of course download and install an alternate launcher.



The phone also comes with three themes each of which comes with a different set of icons, wallpapers, font style, sounds, and lock screen styles. There's no way to download or install new themes but existing ones can be customized. The themes and skins are not as good as those made for MiUI.

The software does not include any stock Android app and everything including the Gallery, Music, Calculator, Calendar and Email apps are built by Huawei's software team. The apps look beautiful and offer additional value added features.

In addition to the regular UI, the phone also offers a 'simple' Home screen style that features a minimalist tiles-like interface with bigger app icons and menus. This mode is useful for senior citizens and users who don't like the default navigation structure.



The Honor 6 also offers motion gestures such as flip to mute, pick up to reduce ringer volume, and shake to arrange icons, among others. It features a suspend button, which, when enabled can float anywhere on the screen. It houses navigation buttons, a button to lock the screen, another one to clear the cache and one to launch widget-like mini apps for taking notes, messaging, calculator, calendar, and music. Unlike floating apps of Samsung or Sony phones you can only open one at a time on this phone.

The software has built-in security features including a Harassment filter for blocking unwanted calls and messages. You can even choose if you want a particular app to work and connect only when you're connected to the internet via Wi-Fi (or only on 3G.) There's a Notification manager that gives you granular control over notifications, a Phone accelerator and storage cleaner for memory optimization, and power saving and do not disturb modes. The phone doesn't come preloaded with bloatware.

Overall, Huawei Honor 6 offers value added features through the customised Android software allowing a greater level of customization and control.

Camera

Huawei Honor 6 sports a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. The rear camera comes with Sony's stacked BSI sensor, F2.0 aperture, 28mm wide lens, hardware-based HDR, and dual LED flash.



The phone features Huawei's own camera app that offers settings for all optical attributes, HDR, Panorama and Timer modes, among others.



Images captured by the camera in daylight turned out well with decent level of detail, accurate colour reproduction and good contrast. Images shot in low-light were also good but a little grainy. The HDR mode was hit or miss and a lot of times pictures were overexposed.

The front camera also shoots good quality selfies and the phone offers all the tools to make you look as good looking as possible.

The phone is capable of recording 1080p videos and we found the videos shot with the phone to be decent, especially for casual use. Don't expect high-quality videos as the phone lacks optical image stabilization resulting in shake being apparent. It does include electronic image stabilization but turning that on reduces the quality of videos.

Hardware & performance
Huawei Honor 6 is powered by a powered by a 1.7GHz Huawei Kirin 920 chip that has an octa-core processor and 3GB RAM. The chip uses big.LITTLE architecture to optimize power usage by efficiently distributing tasks among low power and high power cores. The phone has 16GB of internal storage and you can use microSD cards of up to 64GB to store multimedia.

Thanks to all the power under the hood, the phone is extremely responsive and snappy even though the Emotion UI software can get heavy on animations and transition effects.



We did not experience any lag whatsoever while navigating through the home screen and menus, launching apps and switching between them. Scrolling was smooth and the phone was able to play full HD video files without any problems.

In synthetic benchmarks, the phone scored 39,409 in Antutu, 11,532 in Quadrant and 58.2 in Nenamark 2 benchmark tests. Some of these scores are much better than the Nexus 5 and Xiaomi Mi3. However, we do not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different at times.

Of the 16GB internal storage, about 13GB is available to the user.

The phone offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity options but misses out on NFC and support for Band 40 4G LTE which has been deployed in India. Interestingly, the phone has an Infrared blaster but sadly there's no accompanying software to utilise the feature.

Huawei Honor 6 offers good call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.

It also offers FM radio. We were able to play most popular video and audio file formats.

The external speaker outlet on the phone, located at the back, offers loud sound output but is not stereo. Also, sound gets muffled when the phone is placed on a soft surface.

The phone is backed by a 3,000mAh battery (non-removable) and will last you a full working day (11-12 hours) if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 1-2 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. Your mileage may vary with different usage pattern.

Gaming
We were able to play games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run 2, Banana Kong, Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger without encountering frame drops or freezes. The phone also did not heat up even after playing games for longer durations.

Verdict
Huawei Honor 6 makes it to the list of contenders running for the throne of the best 'value for money' smartphone. At Rs 19,999, the phone packs in some powerful hardware, great performance, good battery backup and a decent camera. The design is a bit underwhelming but doesn't come in the way of easy access and use.



There are not many alternatives that offer a similar package of top-end specs at this price right now. However, we're expecting the OnePlus One and Xiaomi Mi4 to be priced close to Rs 20,000, when these arrive in India, later this year. The Lenovo Vibe X2, also priced at Rs 20,000, could be another very good alternative but you should wait for our review of Vibe X2 before making a decision.

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Micromax YU Yureka review

Micromax recently unveiled Yureka, its first budget smartphone to be powered by Cyanogen's software under a new sub-brand that it calls YU. Besides running the developer-friendly flavour of Android, known for its customization capabilities, the phone also boasts of the latest hardware and 4G connectivity.

At Rs 8,999, it is one of the most competitively priced smartphones available in the India market. But does it really live up to all the hype surrounding it? We try to find out in our review...

Build & design

At first glance, the Yureka smartphone doesn't look very different from other Micromax budget devices, complete with a glossy, black plastic front panel and capacitive touch keys. The corners are pronouncedly rounded while the edges are flat. Although it falls in phablet territory, the Yureka doesn't feel humongous.




The phone has a removable back panel that has slightly rounded edges and a soft matte finish. Micromax refers to the finish as 'Moonstone Grey' and it does remind us of the OnePlus One although the similarity is more in the grey colour than in texture. The power key is placed at the right edge while the volume rocker sits at the left side. The keys are made of plastic and offer decent tactile feedback.

The 13MP rear camera and LED flash are placed at the back towards the left side and don't protrude out. You'll also find some YU branding (the only bit) and a speaker grill at the back. removing the back cover reveals the battery compartment, two micro-sim card slots and a microSD card slot.

For a phone priced at Rs 8,999, the YU is a decently built device.

Display

Yureka features a 5.5-inch IPS display with HD (720x1280p) resolution. Unlike OnePlus One, the panel is not full-HD and this implies that the number of pixels per inch are less.

We noticed some distortion due to lower pixel density and also found colours to be a little over saturated. The display's colour temperature is on the cooler side resulting in a blue tint. Switching from a OnePlus One, we found the tint to be intimidating resulting in whites looking blue and colours not looking very accurate.



The display is also reflective resulting in slightly less optimum under-sun legibility. We also found that colours appeared slightly different as you change the viewing angle. The display has Gorilla Glass 3 to protect against scratches and an oleophobic coating to prevent smudging.

Touch response was good though. Overall, we feel that Micromax could have used a better display panel.

Software

Micromax YU Yureka runs Cyanogen OS 11 a custom aftermarket version of Android (version 4.4 KitKat) developed by Cyanogen. CyanogenMod, Cyanogen's Android ROM, is known for its customizability, enhanced performance and additional security and privacy features.

The look and feel is very close to stock Android barring a few UI elements, although customization is possible via themes. The default theme has been tweaked a bit and the icons looked different from the OnePlus One which also runs the same OS.

The default theme features the usual lock screen, home screen and app launcher navigation structure. Long tapping on an empty space on the home screen launches a pull-up settings menu that lets you customize the home screen, app drawer and app icons. You can choose the scrolling effect, app shortcuts sorting mode, and icon size among other settings, and customize it. You can also hide app icons in case you don't want someone to see the apps you're using.

The software offers a high level of customization and lets you tweak the lock screen, status bar and notifications panel as per your liking. You can choose to enable direct access to the quick settings panel by pulling the right edge.

There's a dual-view notification tray with the first panel featuring notifications and a quick access ribbon with toggles for select settings and the second one offering the quick settings panel. It also offers pop-up notifications.

You can also choose between on-screen navigation buttons and hardware navigation buttons, and programme hardware buttons to perform different actions. For instance, you can make the Home button the call answer key or make the volume rocker keys wake up the device.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and the phone offers customization at every level thanks to the OS.

CyanogenMod also offers advanced privacy and security features including Privacy Guard through which you can prevent apps from accessing your personal data. There's also support for secure messaging through WhisperPush encrypted SMS.However, these messages are supported between devices running Cyanogen and devices that are TextSecure compatible. The Phone app also allows you to block and blacklist phone numbers.

CyanogenMod also offers a Themes app that lets users browse through, download and apply themes. Themes change the complete look and feel of the phone including the UI style, navigation bars, icons, fonts, boot animation and sounds.

YU Yureka also lets you sync app and game data through the Baton app but we were not able to use the service and it just returned a 'could not connect to server' error message.

The other native apps include a File Manager, a Gallery app, Sound recorder and a Screencast app. The Gallery app automatically organizes local and cloud-stored photos arranging them by time (Moments), occasion (Albums) and type (Media). The phone also includes all Google apps.

The phone's software features AudioFX app that offers equaliser presets for the phone's speaker, headset, Bluetooth output and Wireless output. It also offers a custom equalizer setting and additional settings for Bass boost, Surround sound and reverb.

Camera

YU Yureka features a 13MP rear camera (f2.2 aperture, capable of 1080p video capture) with Sony EXMOR CMOS sensor and a 5MP front camera with 71 degree field of view. The phone can also shoot slow-motion videos as 60 frames per second and a future software update will make it capable of shooting slow motion video at 120 frames per second.



Yu comes with the CyanogenMod Camera app that offers granular settings for controls including size, quality, shutter speed, focus duration, focus mode, and ISO, among others. Vertical swipes change the scene mode while horizontal swipes lets you browse pictures and videos shot with the phone. The app offers Panorama, Burst and HDR modes.



The quality of images captured outdoors, in daylight was satisfactory with good level of detail, accurate colour reproduction, little noise and good contrast.

Low-light shots were not as good and had considerable amount of noise, especially under 100% zoom.

The front camera captures good quality selfies and the Beauty mode really enhances them. It's also good for voice chats.

Performance

YU Yureka sports the latest internals and is one of the cheapest devices to offer 4G connectivity and a chip based on 64 bit architecture.

The phone is powered by a 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa core chip with 1.5GHz processor cores, Adreno 405 graphics and 2GB DDR3 RAM. We've seen the same chip in the recently launched Vivo X5Max phone. Qualcomm's latest chip supports dual-mode 4G LTE connectivity with support for both LTE TDD 2300MHz and LTE FDD 1800MHz bands covering most present and upcoming Indian 4G networks. We were not able to test 4G as our city doesn't have any LTE networks yet.

It's worth pointing out that the 64-bit architecture is not supported by Android 4.4, but Cyanogen and Micromax have promised that the phone will soon get the Android Lollipop update. Phones still need more memory to fully leverage 64-bit capabilities and 2GB would not really suffice.

Thanks to all the power under the hood, we did not notice any stutter or lag while launching and switching between apps, editing photos, browsing the web, clicking pictures, watching high definition videos or playing graphics-heavy games.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, it scored 16,914 in Quadrant Standard, 30,883 in AnTuTu, 2007 in Geekbench 3 (Multi-core) and 55 in NenaMark 2. The benchmark scores are comparable to that of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3G. We don't endorse benchmark tests and do not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different at times.

We were able to play videos of popular file formats without any hiccups.

Call quality was average but at times the other party complained of lower loudness levels. The phone works well even in weak signal areas and we did not face any network-related issue. It comes with GPS and A-GPS for navigation and maps and was easily able to lock a signal.



YU offers dual-sim functionality but doesn't allow you to forward calls from one line to the other. This means it won't notify you and forward calls when you get a call on the other line.

The sound output through the phone's speaker outlet was decent, however, the sound quality was not great. Also, sound gets muffled when the phone is placed on a soft surface.

YU comes with a 2500mAh battery and the results were mixed, especially if you turn on full brightness and keep 3G data on.

With moderate to high usage, including about one to two hours of making calls, playing games, clicking some pictures, listening to music and browsing the web, the phone will last you a full working day (11 to 12 hours with 1-2 hours screen on time) even if you put the screen brightness at the maximum level and keep 3G turned on.

If you switch to auto brightness the backup goes up considerably.

Gaming

We played games like Looney Tunes Dash, Leo's Fortune, Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8 (with Visual Quality set to High and Engine at 100%) without encountering frame drops or freezes.



Verdict

It's difficult not to recommend the Yureka if you're looking for a premium smartphone and don't want to spend much. It's certainly the best smartphone available for less than Rs 10,000 especially considering that it also supports 4G connectivity.

The build quality and display are not top notch but the performance offered by the phone is superior compared to other phones in the price segment. Of course, availability is difficult due to the flash sales model but if you can get your hands on one, the Yureka is a great buy.

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