Yu Makes a Comeback With the Ace: Can It Take On Xiaomi Redmi 5A?

Yu made a re-entry into the Indian market with the entry-level Ace, is it better than the market leader Redmi 5A?

Will the Micromax Yu Ace be able to take on the popular Xiaomi Redmi 5A?

(Photo: The Quint)

Micromax's sub brand Yu is back. This time it adorns a phone called the Yu Ace. The brand came into India in 2015, with the Yureka smartphone, which was fairly well received. Then came more phones like the Yuphoria, Yunique and the Yureka 2. But they disappeared just as fast.

Yu has been silent for a while. Until now. Is the Yu Ace capable of giving Yu another chance in the Indian market?

Here is a quick overview of how the phone fares against one of the most popular models in its price segment – the Redmi 5A.

Looks

The Yu Ace looks good, but it is a bit bulky given the standards being followed these days. The 4,000mAh battery has a role to play here. The back panel of the phone is made of glossy polycarbonate to give the phone a premium look. However, the glossy back hasn't worked well for Yu as it makes the phone a bit too shiny. On the back, it has its camera and the fingerprint sensor, placed towards the upper half of the phone.

The glossy back panel hasn’t worked for Yu as it is a fingerprint magnet and doesn’t add to the phone’s appeal.

The Redmi 5A has a matte finish back panel.

The Redmi 5A, on the other hand, looks more subtle and adapts better to the modern times. With thinner bezels and a slimmer body overall, it is the better looking phone out of the two. Also, it has a nice matte finish on its back panel.

Both phones are worth Rs 5,999.

Both phones have their speakers at the bottom of the back panel, with the brand badges right above the speaker outlet.

Display

The Yu Ace has a 5.5-inch display, while the Redmi 5A has a 5.0-inch panel.

The Yu Ace comes with a 5.5-inch 720x1440 pixels HD display. The display is pretty bright, so using it in the sun should be a seamless experience. It has a better resolution than the Redmi 5A's 720x1280 display. On the brightness front also, the Yu looks better than the Redmi 5A from the face of it.

Hardware

The Yu Ace comes loaded with a Quad-core MediaTek processor paired with 2GB of RAM. The Redmi 5A, on the other hand, comes powered with a quad-core Snapdragon 425 chipset and 2GB of RAM.

Both phones use a 13MP rear shooter.

Both phones come with 16GB of internal storage, with an option to expand via a microSD card. The Redmi 5A can be expanded up to 256GB of space while the Yu Ace can only expand its memory till 128GB.

Since the Yu Ace was launched about a year after the Redmi 5A, it has the latest software on board. The Ace comes with Android Oreo that runs on a stock Android launcher, while the Redmi 5A still runs on the dated Android Nougat (7.0). And making the older version even slower, is the sluggish MiUI.

Both phones have similar cameras as well, with a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front sensor.

Both phones come loaded with 2GB RAM.

The Yu Ace also trumps the Redmi in terms of battery. The Redmi 5A's 3,000mAh is compared to the Ace's 4,000mAh unit. There is really no comparison here. Although how well the Ace utilises the battery is something that remains to be seen.

Initial Verdict

Since this is Yu's second innings in the market, this time it has more serious competition to deal with as the market has expanded to an extent.

The Yu Ace doesn’t seem strong enough to take on the market leaders.

Although the Yu Ace is a great effort at reentering the market, it is not enough to beat market leaders like Xiaomi and Motorola in the entry-level segment.