Panasonic – Tech Raman

Panasonic Launches Lumix S Series full-frame Mirrorless Cameras In India – Details | Key Features

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 04:19:24 +0000

Panasonic might have arrived a little late to the party by launching its first full-frame mirrorless Lumix S series but that doesn’t mean they could be brushed off. Both the Lumix S1 and S1R sounds like a solid offering in the professional camera segment and is serious about the space they are in. The Lumix S1 is priced at Rs 199,990 and with 24-105mm F4 lens, will cost Rs 267,990. The Lumix S1R is priced at Rs 299,990 (body only) and Rs 367,990 with a 24-105mm F4 lens. Key Features of the Lumix S Series:

Lumix S1 and S1R comes with 24-megapixel (35.6 x 23.8mm) and 47.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor (36mm x 24mm) respectively
The cameras offer 4K video recording with body and lens image stabilization.
The Lumix S1R feature a high resolution mode for first time in a mirrorless full-frame camera to enable 187-megapixel ultra-high precision photo with a pixel shift technology.
The Lumix S1 could take high-resolution mode detailing a 96-megapixel ultra-high precision photo with a pixel shifting technology.
Both the Lumix S1R / S1 offers a AF of approximately 0.08 sec.
Both offers a high speed burst shooting at 9fps (AFS) or 6fps (AFC)
Working with L-mount alliance with Leica camera and Sigma, Panasonic has introduced three new interchangeable lens. There are plans for 42 more lenses available for L mount series over the next 2 years from the alliance.
The 3050mAh battery with 7.4V can be quickly charged via ISB PD using the bundled USB 3.1 type-c cable.

Panasonic Lumix S Lens details:

Lumix S Pro 50mm F1.4 (S-X50) – a large aperture fixed focal length lens
Lumix S Pro 70-200mm F4 OIS (S-R70200) – A telephoto Zoom lens that features high resolution
Lumix S 24-105mm F4 Macro OIS (S-R24105) – A versatile standard zoom lens with macro shot capability

The series is based on L-mount standard and both Lumix S1 and S1R cameras comes with 24MP and 47.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor, respectively. Talking about the launch Sandeep Seghal, Business Chief, Panasonic India stated “The new Lumix S series boasts intuitive control, a rugged design for heavy-field use, durability and expandability, and is suitable for professional photography and videography,” “The Lumix S Series showcases our commitment to India and we are extremely confident to achieve double-digit market share in the next two years,” he added. The Lumix S Series comes with industry-leading video recording performance, an effective image stabilization, rich gradation and superior colour reproduction. The Panasonic Lumix S1 and S1R offers a high-speed, high-precision AF system based on advanced control technology over the lens, the sensor and the new “Venus Engine” enable the user to capture the target in sharp focus without fail. “The imaging industry is a complex and demanding space and we have brought in defining changes by listening to our users and continuous investment in R&D to bring in industry-first technologies,” added Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia. The Lumix S1R features a High Resolution mode for the first time as a mirrorless full-frame camera to enable 187MP ultra-high precision photo with a pixel shift technology shooting.]]>

Panasonic P100 Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 22:50:22 +0000

Box contents: Everything you would want for your phone is ticked out of the box.

P100 Smartphone
soft back case
Battery
Earphone
screen guard
micro usb cable
power adapter
user guide

Design and Build Quality

The Panasonic P100 is a compact phone that snuggles nicely on your palm. The corners are rounded and the sides are smooth. The rear is glossy and even though it is of plastic construction, it is likeable. It is available in four colour options, namely Blue, Black, Gold, and Dark Grey. The rear panel can be removed, a rare commodity these days. Inside you can fit in the included 2200mAh battery , the P100 has provision for two SIM slots and a dedicated microSD card. The phone supports 4G VoLTE. The right side has the power and volume buttons. The top has the audio jack and a mic and the bottom an audio jack. The rear houses the camera and a LED flash stacked vertically with a finger sensor below. The speaker slit is also at the bottom of the rear side. Panasonic P100 has got a decent looks for a budget offering. It might be a bit old fashioned with plastic chasis and removable back panel but it is more practical and has a pleasing looks. It definitely is one of the most good looking entry-level smartphone in its price segment.

Display

The front is bit aesthetic for the P100 in terms of the design. It kind of makes the phone a little cute, yes I said it. The phone has the 16:9 aspect ratio something that has been taken over by 18:9 aspect ratio in the immediate next segment to this phone. The screen has rounded corners which is rather nice and the black borders around the screen also compliments that rounded design that makes the phone a lot nicer to look at. There are on-screen navigation buttons at the chin and the top has the front firing camera, LED flash, ear piece and sensors. The P100 features a 5-inch IPS display with a 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. I was surprised to find the screen even has a Corning gorilla protective layer for this price. The display is bright with a decent viewing angles. The display setting has adaptive brightness and it works as expected.

Software

Panasonic P100 makes use Android nougat with almost stock flavour but with few additions, you do get app drawer. There are many apps preinstalled like Google’s payment UPI payment app, Tez and even a duplicate gallery app, K gallery along with other random apps like Newspoint etc. P100 comes with some smart features that include:

Pocket mode: When your phone is in your pocket and if there is an incoming call, it automatically increases the ringer volume for better audibility.
Smart dial: When you are in the SMS interface or on a particular contact interface, lifting the phone near the ear will connect the call.
Smart answer: When there is an incoming call, you can simply lift the phone to near ear to get the call connected.
Other smart features include double tap to wake, flip to mute.

Fingerprint sensor

Very few phone offers fingerprint sensor at this price point and P100 has a reliable fingerprint sensor, though a tad slower by fraction of seconds. You can unlock the phone but there is no app lock.

Performance

Powering the P100 is the entry-level MediaTek MT 6735 chipset clocked at 1.2Ghz, Mali-T720 GPU and with a 1GB/2GB RAM option and 16GB of internal storage. The specs covers up for the basic tasks on the phone. The call quality is good, the speaker is decent for this category. The phone does not have Gyroscope, so hence no support for VR. If you are using the phone for your basic requirements like making calls, Whatsapp, social apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and playing lighter games, the P100 should not disappoint you. Lighter games can be played without hiccups.

Camera

Rear camera: 8 MP auto focus with LED Flash
Front camera: 5 MP with Flash

I don’t expect much from camera performance of entry-level smartphones, they usually are just to stamp your memories but P100 has decent enough camera optics for this price. The selfies hit the satisfactory mark. Considering the price point, the rear camera is not bad either. It would be injustice to compare the camera with phones twice its price point.

Battery

P100 comes with a 2200mAh battery. On paper this might sound too less considering many phones these days pack 3000mAh and more. But considering the phone has a smaller 5-inch display with HD resolution and is powered by less demanding MT6735 and the targeted users would be using the phone more for basic stuffs, it can sail through a day.

Verdict

Panasonic P100 is one of the most pleasing looking phone at this price point. It is a decent phone at this price point and you also get fingerprint sensor which very few phones offer in this segment.]]>

Panasonic Eluga Ray 700 Review : Betting on the Big battery

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 01:47:26 +0000

Panasonic is quiet bullish about Indian market and is evident by its new launches catering to varied needs and use cases of Indian consumers. Few weeks back I had reviewed the Panasonic A3 Pro, which we announced it as the Japanese homecoming and now we have here the Eluga Ray 700 which looks like a potent device considering the fact it has a 5000mAh mammoth battery pack as its USP. Go ahead, read the Eluga Ray 700 review to see if it can win over the market. Out of the box you get:

The Ray 700 smartphone
Earphone
Charger
Micro USB cable
Pin to eject SIM tray
Screen guard
Documents

Design and Build Quality

While most phones are getting thinner these days, thinner also comes with an added risk of being less durable. Panasonic seems to be stressing more upon the durability factor in their phones, so yes their phones are bit fatter but I have dropped them couple of times and they withstood the falls without any visible marks. It comes in three colors – champagne gold, mocha gold and marine blue. While the blue color looked a hottie in the box cover, what I got though is the champagne gold unit for review. Clad in a metal unibody the Eluga Ray 700 measures 8.9mm and weighs 182 grams. The weight distribution is even, you actually don’t feel it hefty. Like in A3 Pro, there is a chrome gleam running at the edges of both the front and back. The camera module and the LED flash is encased in a single module and it adds character to the design. The top settles for a audio port. The bottom has the microUSB port and speaker grille(s) , while one side houses the speaker grille, the another balances the design and also accommodates a microphone. The right side has the power button and volume buttons, both are easily accessible on one hand and offers good tactile feedback. The left side has the SIM tray and gladly its not a hybrid SIM type. You can have two SIMs and also slot in a microSD card. Its a 4G VoLTE phone. The front has a capacitive buttons flanked by back and menu buttons. If you prefer you can opt for on-screen navigation buttons from the settings menu. Pretty neat choice here. The top has the front camera ,ear piece grille and sensors.

Display

The Eluga Ray 700 has a 5.5-inch IPS LCD screen with a 1920 x 1080 pixes resolution, adding up to a PPI pixel density. It is backed by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and has a 2.5D glass. The display settings has the MiraVision settings for tuning the basic colors, changing around the color modes and tuning the sharpness and color temperature, in case you want to match the display quality to your liking. There is an adaptive brightness toggle, screen cast option. There is also a launcher app sort setting where you can choose to arrange the apps alphabetically , which is the default option or by recently installed sorting.

Software

While most OEMs have a affinity for introducing their own UI and tweaking the Android heavily, Panasonic has opted for almost a stock android experience but with minor tweaks. You get app drawer too. The phone doesn’t offer much feature-wise unlike the heavily skimmed most other UIs. You do get a navigation bar setting where you can shift the position of the back and menu buttons. Since it runs on Android Nougat, Eluga Ray 700 also supports multi-tasking with its split screen feature. The UI could do a bit of fine tuning and made sleeker though.

Performance

The Eluga Ray 700 is powered by MediaTek MT6753 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz , Mali T720MP3, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage with around 22.6GB user available out of the box. It is same as the A3 Pro. The phone comes with lot many pre-installed apps and some are Indian specific like Amazon Prime, PhonePe, V-PayQuik and other apps like Xender, K-Gallery, Cupcake Dreamland. The good thing is most of these apps can be uninstalled if you want to. The phone has FM player which many in India especially the segment that buy phones offline look for. The fingerprint sensor works good and accurate when unlocking the phone though not the fastest I have seen. There is no app lock or any extra features attached to the sensor. When it comes to gaming the MT6753 handles light and most games but might struggle against graphic intensive games and you might need to shift to low-medium settings for a decent play. But this phone with a 5000mAh is not targeted at the gaming tribe either but those who want to play a bit of random games during their break may be and not bothered about their battery being drained. And of course, you can indulge on hours of movies too with those extra battery juice from the 5000mA pack. One inclusion that Panasonic tout on their phones beginning with the Eluga Ray and Ray Max is their bet on artificial intelligence, Arbo that is integrated to the software. While AI is the future the technology is leading us to, the Arbo is just a nascent concept. It gives suggestions as you keep using the phone but there is much Panasonic could bring with the advancement of the technology. As of date, the Arbo is still learning and miles to go before it works in unison with the user. Call quality is good, the speaker quality is good too. The Ray 700 also has google voice assistant baked in, so at any screen you can say “Ok Google” and call upon the google assistance.

Camera

13 MP (primary camera)
f/2.0,
phase detection autofocus,
dual-LED flash
13 MP front camera
up tofullHD video
13 MP (front camera)
f/2.2,
up to 1080p,
HDR + beauty modes

[gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="12506,12507,12508,12509,12510,12511,12512,12513" orderby="rand"] The Eluga Ray 700 boasts of a 13-megapixel camera in the front and back both capable of up to 1080p videos. The rear camera performs decently well under good day light. The color reproduction is natural. There is no artificial sharpness and they images look soft and pleasing. Under low light, like most of the phones in this price range there are quiet some noise levels but still the colors are natural. HDR helps to highlight the shadows and you can see it in one of the images in the gallery. The 13-megapixel front camera also does a decently good job at taking selfies. While there is no image stabilization, both the cameras can take up to fullHD videos. The camera modes is limited to HDR, Panaroma and face beauty but surprisingly the camera mode also has a RAW mode, in case you want.

Battery life:

The 5000mAh battery offered me around 9 hours 30 minutes of screen on time, which is pretty good. If you are a normal user, you can expect close to two days of battery life with this phone.

Verdict:

Panasonic seems to have got the pricing right for Eluga Ray 700 at Rs 9,999. It’s the segment where volumes are and with a 5000mAh battery and offering decent mix of everything that an average consumer would look forward to in a Smartphone, Eluga Ray 700 doesn’t disappoint. ]]>

Panasonic A3 Pro Review – The Japanese homecoming

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 00:51:34 +0000

Panasonic has a long history in India and is quiet a well known name among even among the semi-urban or rural areas thanks to them being in operations in India since the year 1972 in home appliances and TV segment. Infact they were one of the early mobile brands in India when the mobile Industry took off here but due went out of public memory when the headquarters at Japan decided to put a plug on the overseas operations of the mobile division. However, since 2012 they again spread overseas. In India they have had a not so aggressive journey so far but the company says that is going to change with them taking the full charge of the Indian operation having discontinued the joint venture they had previously here. So, Panasonic is poised for better times here and they have lined up an array of Smartphones for the Indian market in various price bands. The Eluga Ray and Eluga Ray Max has had a decent figures to tell for Panasonic in India having sold over 4 million units here. What I got here for is the Panasonic A3 Pro which is priced at Rs 12,790 and which is available in all Panasonic brand shops and other retail outlets in India. It is backed by a 4000mAh battery and can read my Panasonic A3 Pro Review to know more about the Android Smartphone.

Design and Build quality

The A3 Pro has a metal design and the build quality is fairly good. The smartphone is available in Mocha Gold, Gold, and Grey colour options. The phone weighs 161 grams and measures 9.1mm in thickness. The rear tapers slightly to the edges, giving a comfortable hold. There is a chrome treatment to the sides and the side metal band has a brushed effect, which gives an interesting look to the phone. The rear has a single camera placed at the middle, with a LED flash perched below it. Panasonic and Eluga branding can be found at the back. The top and bottom has the antenna lines. And a speaker grille nests on the bottom cap. The rear is smudge free. The right side has the power button and the volume button and both offers good tactile feedback. The left houses the SIM tray which can ejected with a pin. Its a hybrid dual SIM. The top has a 3.5mm audio jack. You could see the brushed metal band around the side clearly in the pic below. The bottom has a microUSB port and a microphone. At the front , the home button also combines as the fingerprint sensor, while there are on-screen navigation buttons. At the top there is the 8 megapixel selfie camera, earpiece, sensors and a mic.

Display

The A3 pro has a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 720 pixels HD resolution. It offers 282 pixels per inch. There are many who find the now popular 5.5-inch a tad bit for daily use and the 5.2-inch strikes the sweet spot for them. Its compact and yet offers a big screen for media consumption, browsing and other stuffs. The display is bright, may not be the best in the pack but not a bad deal either. The display settings has the MiraVision settings for tuning the basic colors, changing around the color modes and tuning the sharpness and color temperature, in case you want to match the display quality to your liking. There is an adaptive brightness toggle, screen cast option. There is also a launcher app sort setting where you can choose to arrange the apps alphabetically , which is the default option or by recently installed sorting.

Software

While most OEMs have a affinity for introducing their own UI and tweaking the Android heavily, Panasonic has opted for almost a stock android experience but with minor tweaks. You get app drawer too. The phone doesn’t offer much feature-wise unlike the heavily skimmed most other UIs. You do get a navigation bar setting where you can shift the position of the back and menu buttons. Since it runs on Android Nougat, A3 Pro also supports multi-tasking with its split screen feature. The UI could a bit of fine tuning and made sleeker though.

Performance

The A3 Pro is powered by MediaTek MT6753 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz , Mali T720MP3, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage with around 22.6GB user available out of the box. The phone comes with lot many pre-installed apps and some are Indian specific like Amazon India, PhonePe, V-PayQuik and other apps like Xender, K-Gallery, Cupcake Dreamland. The good thing is most of these apps can be uninstalled if you want to. The phone has FM player which many in India especially the segment that buy phones offline look for. The fingerprint sensor works good and accurate when unlocking the phone though not the fastest I have seen. While the fingerprint setting says it can be used for app lock, I could not find the settings anywhere, so I assume it is not available. One inclusion that Panasonic tout on their phones beginning with the Eluga Ray and Ray Max is their bet on artificial intelligence, Arbo that is integrated to the software. While AI is the future the technology is leading us to, the Arbo is just a nascent concept. It gives suggestions as you keep using the phone but there is much Panasonic could bring with the advancement of the technology. As of date, the Arbo is still learning and miles to go before it works in unison with the user. Call quality is good, the speaker quality is decent too. With a 5.2″ display and a HD resolution, the battery demand is comparatively less and with a 4000mAh battery, the battery life of the A3 Pro is pretty good and people could very well like it for that.

Camera

Coming to the camera part, the Panasonic A3 Pro is equipped with a 13 MP, phase detection autofocus, LED flash at the rear and a 8-megapixel selfie camera at the front. The rear camera can shoot videos at 1080p (FHD) resolution. The camera mode includes normal mode, a PIP (Picture in Picture) mode, panorama mode and 8 live filters. The selfie camera has a beauty mode. The volume key can be assigned to shoot, zoom while in the camera mode. Now how are the pictures? [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="12391,12392,12393,12394,12395,12396,12397,12398" orderby="rand"] Android Orea is bringing the PIP camera mode but Panasonic is amongst the early adopters much before that. Both the camera work in unison be it on regular rear camera mode or when taking selfies when you choose the PIP mode. The camera quality is decent.

Verdict:

These days most phones come with the 5.5-inch display screen making it a bit too uncomfortable to use for some. The 5.2-inch display size of Panasonic A3 Pro makes it a compact device. The phone offers decent performance and combined with a good build quality and heavy battery life. For those who want a good battery life in a compact phone, the A3 Pro is a choice to look at.]]>

Panasonic Eluga Turbo with 3GB RAM launched at Rs 10,999

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:33:29 +0000

Panasonic Eluga Turbo Specifications

DISPLAY SIZE, TYPE & RESOLUTION	12.7cm(5) IPS HD (1280×720) pixels
PROCESSOR	1.5 GHz 64 bit Octa Core Processor
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android™ 5.1 (Lollipop)
MEMORY	3GB RAM + 32 GB ROM with expandable Micro SD up to 32GB
CAMERA	13 MP Rear Camera with LED Flash , supports 30fps FHD 1080p video recording
CAMERA BATTERY	5 MP Front Camera
CAMERA BATTERY	2350mAh Battery
DIMENSIONS	142.4 x 71.2 x 6.95 mm
AVAILABLE COLOURS	Marine Blue, Champagne Gold, Rose Gold
CONNECTIVITY	Dual SIM (4G/3G,2G)
CONNECTIVITY & SENSORS	GSM- 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS-2100 MHz , LTE-B3/ B5/B40
	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; Wi-Fi Hotspot & Wi-Fi Direct
	Bluetooth™ 4.0
	Light Sensor, Proximity sensor & Accelerometer
GLOBAL POSITIONING SUPPORT	Yes, with A-GPS support
FM SUPPORT	Yes
INBOX ACCESSORIES	Handset with Battery, Screen Guard, Flip Cover, Earphones, USB Cable, Charger, Warranty Card, User Manual,

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Panasonic Eluga S, Selfie Phone with Octo-core processor launched at Rs 11,190

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:28:29 +0000

Panasonic India has made a new addition to its Eluga series and this time it is a selfie phone with a octo-core chipset. The Eluga S is priced at Rs 11,190 and comes with a Blink Play feature which the company says will allow for great selfies to be captured. The dual-SIM Eluga S is clad in a unibody casing and flaunts a faux-leather panel on the rear. It gets a 5-inch IPS HD display with a 720×1080 pixel resolution. Powered by a 1.4GHz octo-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with an option for external storage up to 32GB, the Eluga S runs on Android KitKat OS with Panasonic’s own ‘FitHome’ UX on top of it. There is a 2100mAh battery packed inside. To justify the Selfie phone tag, the Eluga S comes with a 5-megapixel front shooter with a Blink play feature which allows the user to activate the shoot mode with a blink of eye which sets a 3-second timer for your perfect selfie. On the rear there is a 8-megapixel camera set up with LED flash which can capture fullHD videos at 30 frames per second. The Panasonic Eluga S is available in Black and White color and comes with a complimentary flip cover and screen guard out of the box.

Panasonic Eluga S Specifications:

5.0″ IPS HD Display
720×1080 pixels
1.4GHz True Octa Core processor
1GB RAM
8GB ROM, expandable up to 32GB
Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS
8 MP Auto Focus with LED Flash Back Camera
5MP Front Camera
2100mAh Lithium-Ion
Dual SIM, Micro SIM
Connectivity: GSM Quadband 850/900/1800/1900; UMTS 900/2100 HSPA+ 42Mbps Downlink ; 5.76 Mbps Uplink 802.11b/g/n; Wi-Fi Hotspot & Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth 4.0 ™ A2DP & Micro USB 2.0 high speed, AGPS
Sensors: Light Sensor, Proximity sensor, & Accelerometer
Unibody
7.9mm thickness
135gm

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Panasonic Eluga S, Selfie Phone with Octo-core processor launched at Rs 11,190

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:28:29 +0000

Panasonic Eluga S Specifications:

5.0″ IPS HD Display
720×1080 pixels
1.4GHz True Octa Core processor
1GB RAM
8GB ROM, expandable up to 32GB
Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS
8 MP Auto Focus with LED Flash Back Camera
5MP Front Camera
2100mAh Lithium-Ion
Dual SIM, Micro SIM
Connectivity: GSM Quadband 850/900/1800/1900; UMTS 900/2100 HSPA+ 42Mbps Downlink ; 5.76 Mbps Uplink 802.11b/g/n; Wi-Fi Hotspot & Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth 4.0 ™ A2DP & Micro USB 2.0 high speed, AGPS
Sensors: Light Sensor, Proximity sensor, & Accelerometer
Unibody
7.9mm thickness
135gm

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