Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro First Impressions

Name: Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro First Impressions
Item: Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro First Impressions
Author: Rohit Arora

Panasonic Eluga X1 is priced at Rs. 22,990 and the X1 Pro will be available at Rs. 26,990 in the offline market.

By Rohit Arora

| Updated: Friday, October 5, 2018, 16:26 [IST]

It's very rare that we get to see a 'Flagship' smartphone launch from the veteran brand Panasonic. Today happens to be the day as the company has unveiled flagship phones in its Eluga series. Panasonic has unveiled two new smartphones- Eluga X1 and Eluga X1 Pro at Rs. 22,990 and Rs. 26,990 respectively. The mid-range smartphones will be available in two colors, Silver and Dark Grey; starting October 10th, 2018 at all leading retail outlets across the country.

Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro First Impressions

The highlight of Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro is wireless charging, AI backed cameras, stainless steel design, and big Full HD+ displays. Interestingly, Panasonic X1 Pro comes with an Infra-Red sensor at the front for face unlock that will offer better security than software driven face unlock feature we get to see in other Android smartphones. Moreover, the Eluga X1 Pro also supports wireless charging making the Eluga X1 Pro the most affordable smartphone with such connectivity feature in its respective price-point. As an Introductory offer, Panasonic will be providing a wireless charger with Eluga X1 pro and a Panasonic headphone with Eluga X1 to its end consumers.

We got to test the handset for a brief time-period during the lunch event and here's our first impression of Panazonic Eluga X1 Pro.

Stainless steel body looks premium

Let's start with the design. The flagship Eluga smartphones from Panasonic are made of stainless steel body and feels quite sturdy in hands. The design of the new Eluga X1 series seems inspired from the Apple iPhone X. The rear panel sports a vertically stacked dual-lens camera setup along with a LED flash. The volume rockers and power button are placed on the right side, the bottom has the Type C charging port and speaker grilles, and you will find the hybrid SIM card slot at the left edge. Overall, the smartphone looks premium and is comfortable to use with one hand.

6.18-inch Full HD+ display with a big Notch

Both the Eluga smartphones sport a 6.18-inch Full HD+ display. The screen is very responsive and offers ample real-estate to for multimedia consumption. The color reproduction of the LCD panel seems natural but the brightness levels are not brilliant. We used the handset outdoors and found that the sunlight visibility is a bit of an issue. The LCD panel works well indoors and everything look crisp and colorful. There's a big notch at the front that houses the selfie camera and infrared sensor. Combined with an edge-to-edge screen, Eluga X1 and X1 Pro gives an iPhone X look and feel. The display also gets Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Arbo Hub- Panasonic AI engine

One of the major highlights of new Eluga Smartphones is the Panasonic's AI engine- Arbo Hub. The hub provides access to multiple apps and services on a single platform. It learns the user preferences and makes recommendations based on areas of interest. It can also improve battery performance. Arbo Hub combines useful data from apps such as Accuweather, Uber, Ola, Newspoint, Mobikwik & Gamezop.

Infra Red Face Unlock

Panasonic is also betting big on AI Sense feature on new Eluga smartphones. It is basically a setup of Infra-Red sensor and IR LED light to offer face-unlock. Panasonic says that the Infra-Red sensors can unlock the phone even in absolute darkness.

Hardware and Software

Both the Eluga smartphones are powered by MediaTek Helio P60 processor, which is undoubtedly underpowered when you compare it with rival CPUs from Snapdragon. Vivo and OPPO offer devices in the same price-point with better chipsets and Xiaomi Poco F1 comes with top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 CPU at a starting price of Rs. 20,999. That said, Panasonic has a tough fight to overcome ahead in the mid-range price segment.

Talking about the RAM, Eluga X1 comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage, whereas Eluga X1 Pro has will be available in 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage option only. Eluga X1 gets 128GB microSD card expansion and the X1 Pro supports up to 256GB external expansion. The new Eluga handsets run on Android 8.1 Oreo and have almost stock Android UI, which is very responsive and clean. Both the smartphones are backed by 3,000 mAh battery unit, which seems less powerful as compared to the competition.

AI-based Dual-lens Cameras

Coming onto the camera part, the cameras on new Eluga devices take help of Artificial intelligence to improve the photography experience. The handset sports a 16MP+5MP Dual-lens rear camera setup and a 16MP selfie camera. The cameras come with Scene Recognition Technology and offer multiple modes such as the Face Beauty mode, Bokeh effect, Live photos, Backlight effect, Timelapse, Pro mode and Group Selfie mode. Panasonic has also added Bokeh mode, Face Emoji and Face beauty in the front camera to enhance selfie output.

Verdict

Panasonic Eluga X1 series offers some noteworthy features at their respective price-point; however, the tough competition from brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, Nokia, and Honor is going to create big troubles for new Panasonic devices. We will test the new handsets to find out the performance in real life. Stay tuned on Gizbot for our comprehensive review of the Eluga X1 and X1 Pro.

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