Micromax launches Yureka with Cyanogen OS at Rs 8,999; available only on Amazon

Micromax has launched its first smartphone under the Yu range, called Yureka, at a price of Rs 8,999.

The unique selling point of this phone is that it runs on Cyanogen OS 11 based on Android 4.4.4. Cyanogen OS provides a host of customisations which you may not find in official Android smartphones. Micromax has promised that Yureka will be one of the first smartphones to get the Android Lollipop OS based version of Cyanogen.

Cyanogen has partnered with Next Bit, a cloud service that allows Yureka users to save all your games, log in credentials, app settings and other app data on the cloud. As it’s a cloud-based service, you can sync data across multiple devices and maintain the current state of your apps on a different device with Next Bit installed.

Micromax’s Yureka runs on a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset with a 1.5GHz octa-core processor. This should allow for faster file transfers, better compression of larger files, low power consumption and should support all the latest games and apps. It’s backed by 2GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of built-in storage.

The Yu smartphone features a 5.5-inch IPS display, with a pixel density of 267ppi. The screen gets a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for better protection against scratches and should also be less reflective in bright light. The rear includes a 13MP CMOS camera with a f2.2 aperture for better low-light photography. In addition, there’s 5MP front camera that has a 71 degree wide angle lens.

The Yu smartphone will be sold exclusively via Amazon. As the phone will be available only for online purchase, Micromax promises free service and replacements at your doorstep. It also says that the phone’s warranty won’t become void even after rooting it.

Micromax is said to have a lot invested in the Yu range and has signed an exclusive partnership with Cyanogen to be the only seller of Cyanogen smartphones in India. It recently filed a lawsuit against OnePlus for allegedly infringing upon its exclusive rights over Cyanogen OS.

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Cyanogen strikes up a partnership with India’s Micromax

The rumors were true after all and Cyanogen, Inc., the company formed from the community-oriented CyanogenMod's core developers, is indeed targeting the growing mobile market of India. It has struck a deal with manufacturer Mircromax that will bring the Android-based OS to a new device. With promises of dirt cheap handsets, constant updates and freedom from bloatware, this team up pretty much puts Micromax somewhat at odds with its other partner,Google, just after the two launched the Android One program last September.

Cyanogen aims to prove that it can do a lot better than OEMs with their own custom skins in providing a more favorable Android experience to users. Although based on the vanilla Android Open Source Project (AOSP), CyanogenMod's custom features, to some extent, come close to providing a unique experience to users similar to that of manufacturers, without diverging too much from the Android path. Of late, Cyanogen, the commercial startup pushing its own "Cyanogen OS", has been busy advertising its repertoire of such features, the most recent being Baton, a Continuity-like feature developed by Nextbit.

Cyanogen's business partnership with Micromax is hardly surprising. It had a similar sweet deal going on with Chinese startup OnePlus, where CyanogenMod 11S, not Cyanogen OS, is the default Android experience on the company's first, and so far only, smartphone. With Micromax, however, Cyanogen is aiming to go down to a more grassroots level, squeezing its OS down to a size and form that will be usable in mid to low range devices that are popular in the Indian market. No device has been announced yet, but Micromax and Cyanogen hint that the deivce will cost less than $300.

This practically tries to take a bite out of the new market that Google's Android One is trying corner in the same country. Interestingly, Micromax is one of the official partners for the new program, with the manufacturer's Canvas A1 being one of three such devices. Of course, Google should expect quite the competition in this particular market, but unlike Samsung's rumored low-end Tizen smartphone, a Cyanogen-Micromax device hits closer to home.

Still, it's too early to say what will come out of this deal, especially as it will be the debut of the commercial Cyanogen OS. Cyanogen, and CyanogenMod, has been quite good at keeping devices supported beyond their usual OEM lifetimes, which is exactly the point that Cyanogen is trying sell to OEMs. It will be interesting to see how far Cyanogen will be able to go and how it will perform with a device that will probably be more mass market, and definitely cheaper, than the OnePlus One.

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Micromax CyanogenMod powered phone rumored to be the 64-bit Canvas 5

We’ve been hearing rumors of a Micromax smartphone running CyanogenMod out of the box and it looks like the device will end up being the next flagship with the Canvas 5 branding. A new report has surfaced claiming to have information on the device and also a possible price, but no release date.

DroidGoblin has learned from a reliable source that the Micromax smartphone with CyanogenMod will ship as the Canvas 5 and that it will be powered by a new octa core MediaTek processor. Based on this, our first deduction was the MT6595 SOC that was revealed last week, but the report notes that the chipset will carry the MT67xx branding.

This narrows down the possibility to just two SOCs, the MT6752 and MT6795, both of which are based on the Cortex A53 that is ARM’s power-efficient 64-bit processor (the successor to the Cortex A7). This is the same design used in the Snapdragon 410 quad core chip and the Snapdragon 615 octa core SOC. The MT6752 has a 1.7GHz clock speed and Mali T760 graphics, while the MT6795 is clocked at up to 2.2GHz with a PowerVR G6200 GPU.

Clearly, both chipsets are very powerful, but they will cater to the mid-range segment since the high-end market will be dominated by the Cortex A57 design. With either of the two MediaTek chips, the Micromax Canvas 5 will be able to deliver Wi-Fi ac and 4G LTE Cat.4 connectivity as well as wireless charging and 4K video capture.

On the hardware front, the report notes that the device will have a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel panel fitted within an aluminum design. Apart from this, there will be 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and CyanogenMod based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat.

The Micromax Canvas 5 is said to be priced under Rs 22000 which would make it the cheapest 64-bit smartphone in India. Do remember, the details mentioned here are unconfirmed and we recommend taking the information with a pinch of salt.

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OPPO N3 leaked photos reveal an even stranger camera

The OPPO N1, much famed for its CyanogenMod ties, will soon have a follow-up. While many aspects about this so-called OPPO N3 remain shrouded in mystery, one thing is clear based on these leaked press materials: it will have a rotating camera that is even stranger than its predecessor.

The rotating camera on the OPPO N1 is both economic and somewhat inspired. After all, why waste resources on two uneven cameras when you can have one that functions as both? Granted, you won't be able to implement fancy features such as taking a photo from both cameras at the same time, embedding the smaller "selfie" image inside the bigger one, like one of Sony's newest camera apps, but that use case might not be too common to warrant it in this case.

The fact that the OPPO N3 would also have a rotating camera isn't actually the most interesting aspect of the smartphone. What is even more peculiar is the form of the device itself. The photo seems to suggest that the N3 will be considerably thinner than the N1 before it. But in order to still accommodate a high sensor camera, OPPO had to put a thicker cyliner on top. The best way to describe the overall design is that it looks like half of a flip phone.

Not much else is known abut the OPPO N3 aside from this external appearance. Questions like whether it will be as gigantic as the OPPO N1 was or whether it will still offer some easy way to get CyanogenMod installed on it remain unanswered. We might not have to wait that long for the answers, though, as OPPO teased a press event in October to reveal its "One More Step" forward.

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