Flagship Killer(s)????

For a long time, the mobile market in India has been dominated by few popular brands such as Samsung, Sony, Nokia (Now Microsoft) and LG. How Ever, the scenario is changing rapidly in the present.

Now a days the mobile market (especially the mid range segment) is crowded with mobiles from relatively unknown companies (Mostly from China) which offer powerful chipsets at affordable prices along with few good Camera features and other perks such as LTE connectivity, finger print scanner etc. So, a common consumer (like me) is very much confused while making a decision to buy a new mobile handset. So should we actually call all of these small branded mobiles as Flagship killers? or what is a flagship actually? Lets try to find out here..

First up, we should not consider all mobiles with fast/latest chip sets as flagship killers or good choices when making a decision. There are several factors that actually impact the functionality of a mobile other than just a fast processor or more RAM. The most important but often ignored factor is to consider the Customer Support or after sales support. For most upcoming brands, there is no significant customer support present in India. You can actually know this if you try to read the user feedback/reviews from popular eCommerce sites such as Flip kart and Amazon. It might seem at first to be a minor issue as brands such as YU promise doorstep service now a days. But, it has got lot of complexities involved which includes troubleshooting the device yourself by going into the reccoveries etc which is not possible for most common people other than Mobile Geeks. So, when a relatively small problem happens with your handset after you buy it, it will take longer durations for that to be recitified by the customer support of these new brands.

Second, Camera Performance. None of the mobiles from relatively unknown brands offer good quality of camera on their mobiles. At best, the picture quality is average. Dont get biased by the numbers which they provide such as mega pixel count etc, but what matters ultimately is the Quality/Detail in the picture we shoot.

Third, Previous generation Flagships from popular brands such as Samsung might be selling at unbelievably low prices now. For example, as of today, Samsung Galaxy S4 (Exynos Version) is selling for Rs.13999 on Snapdeal. In my opinion this is a steal because the mobile was selling for more than 30k at some point of time. It might not have some new age tricks such as a finger print scanner but for a consumer like me, this is not required by any means at least in the near future.

So, Do your research before buying a new mobile and act wise.

Peace....

Yu Yureka - Yu Play God :) - Charging Circuit Problem

Hello Guys, Whats Up...

I am writing this article so as to know if there are any other people out there who are suffering with the same problem.

Basically YU Yureka got a much hype when it was launched for INR 8999. This mobile is well known for its killer features like :
Ships with Cyanogenmod OS
2GB RAM
Snapdragon 615 Processor
Stylish and Elegant Looks similar to One Plus One.


I purchased this device from Amazon.in on May1st, 2015 during an Open Sale. I was very much pleased with the performance of the device till a couple of days back though there are few minor usability issues like touch being not very good for its class, Slow loading of the call log/dialer etc.
The device is a powerhouse when it comes to gaming. The Processor, GPU combined with 2GB RAM mostly provide lag-free gaming.

On the fateful day, it all started early in the morning. My yureka's battery was low with about 15% juice remaining. I tried to charge it by using the supplied charger. Nothing happened. No LED Indicator and no charging symbol in UI. Then after fiddling with the charger for a while, I used the charger supplied with my one plus one. No use. Then I tried with all most all chargers ranging from Samsung and Sony to no avail. I even tried to connect the phone to my laptop using the data cable which did not work as well. Then I decided that there is something wrong with the charging circuit of my mobile and was still confident as the mobile is still in warranty period and there is pick and drop service available at my location. Unfortunately I could not call the customer support as it was a sunday. Then, On Monday morning after 10 O'Clock, I tried calling the customer care. The guy was very polite initially though he was talking in Hindi instead of in English. When I explained him about the problem, he promptly asked me to use any other charger instead of the supplied one. Then I told him that I used multiple chargers and I was able to charge other phones with those chargers. At this point, this guy has put my call on hold and after resuming the call he stated that I should do some troubleshooting by fully charging my mobile (LOL.. it was funny indeed) and doing the factory reset from Recovery. He also suggested me to use the phone in SAFE mode for as long as FOUR hours and guaranteed that the problem will be resolved. I told him that my mobile battery is dead and I cannot charge it as my primary concern is with respect to the phone not getting charged. Still, he insisted that I should get the battery charged by using any universal charger which I should buy if I do not own one. As long as I tried to explain that the phone is in warranty and I do not wish to buy any additional accessories, he still stood by his word confirming that he cannot do anything else and I should buy a universal charger. At this point I got irritated and told him that he was not helpful and disconnected the call after he again started to repeat the same troubleshooting steps including charging the device to 100%. I tried to call multiple times and all the representatives stated the same steps.

So, right now my Yureka, which is hardly 4 months old is lying on the table with a dead battery.

Though the mobile is having some good software and not so good hardware, the company(YU Televentures) is playing spoilsport with mediocre customer support.

At this point, I decided to suggest people not to buy any mobile from this brand.

P.S: I have actually ordered a universal charger online and will update the article once I get the charger and perform the troubleshooting steps on the device.