New Delhi, December 12 – Micromax recently announced a new brand called Yu, which will be exclusive to e-retail channels. The bigger deal about the phone is that it runs on CyanogenMod OS, an Android-based operating system, which is well liked by geeks.
IndiaToday.in has learned some details about the phone, which is expected to be announced on December 18 at an event in New Delhi. Sources tell us that the phone will have LTE support baked in and will be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset.
The Snapdragon 615 is a brand new SoC based on an octa-core architecture. The big deal about the chipset is that it does not only support 4G LTE networks in India, but also supports 64-bit applications, if the relevant software support is available.
For now support for 64-bit computing is not relevant considering CyanogenMod is based on Android 4.4 KitKat, which does not support 64-bit apps. However, Yu may get an update to Android Lollipop later, which adds the ART runtime environment and 64-bit support. That may give Yu phones an advantage over competitors.
Qualcomm positions the Snapdragon 615 as a mid range chipset, but in its portfolio it is currently the highest-end SoC to boast 64-bit support. Currently, in India only the HTC Desire 820q is powered by the Snapdragon 615.
CyanogenMod and Micromax both courted controversy in recent time after the announcement of the exclusive partnership between Yu and Cyanogenmod in India. OnePlus, the other company which is known to use Cyanogenmod, recently launched its One smartphone and because of the deal its devices sold in India will not get an OTA update to the next version of Cyanogenmod.
-INDIA TODAY
