GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL .........................Panasonic Eluga U smartphone: First impressions

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL Panasonic Eluga U smartphone: First impressions

Panasonic India has launched its new dual SIM flagship smartphone in the sub Rs 20,000 segment called Panasonic Eluga U. The Eluga U aims to compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 and HTC Desire 616 in terms of pricing and features. Read on for our first impressions of the smartphone. 

Design:

Eluga U stands out from the usual crowd with a slim unibody design and a glass finish on the rear panel. There is a flap on the left side that hides the microSD slot and the dual SIM tray. On the right are the power and volume keys with even spacing between them - this could confuse the first time user, as there is no visible distinction between the power and volume keys. The only thing we felt missing was that the Android buttons for back, menu and home were not backlit. For a phone with a 5-inch display, it feels well balanced in hand. Overall it feels well built and sturdy.

Display:

It has a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. Viewing angles are good and it has excellent touch response. Unless compared with a similar size display that has full HD resolution, you will not notice the difference in sharpness. Panasonic has modified the OS to enable landscape mode view on the home screen - a feature usually not found on Android devices.

Hardware: 

Inside the slim body is a 1.2Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor coupled with 2GB RAM. You also get 16GB of internal storage with the option of expansion using microSD card (up to 32GB supported). There is a non-removable 2,500mAh battery, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity along with accelerometer, light, proximity and gyro sensor.
Software:

While the phone runs on the latest Android 4.4 KitKat, Panasonic has introduced its new FitHome UI on the Eluga U. The user interface lets you access all your installed apps on the homescreen itself. When you click on the app drawer icon, it opens in similar style as a folder on Android phones -you can scroll through the installed apps, sort them in your choice of order and also access your widgets and wallpapers from here. Plus you can also choose the grid layout of the icons on your home screen (3 x 4, 4 x 4 or 5 x 5). If for some reason you do not like the FitHome UI, you can go to settings and switch to the default Kitkat launcher.

Performance:

For the brief time we had with the phone, we did not notice any lags or sluggishness. Menu animations were smooth and the phone easily managed to play a full HD videos. Switching between running apps was instant thanks to the 2GB RAM. However, once the phone is loaded with the commonly used apps, this might be affected.

Cameras:

The Eluga U has a 13MP autofocus primary camera and a 2MP front camera. The camera user interface gives you access to plethora of settings to tweak including ISO, white balance, exposure, saturation etc. The image quality from the rear camera is great with noise visible indoors only when viewed on a larger display. The front camera has visible noise, but in daylight it is good for occasional selfies. A good thing is that you get HDR mode for both front and rear cameras.

Overall:

From the first look, the Eluga U is an impressive phone. It looks good, and performs great. We wished Panasonic had included a more powerful processor as could prove to be a limiting factor for gaming.

By Karan Bajaj, ET 14-0730