Quite some time ago now, Panasonic bowed out of the Japanese smartphone market, citing competition and operating costs too difficult to go up against. However, they’ve steadily become something of a name in the Indian market, managing to sell devices at lower costs while still offering a pretty appealing feature set that the Indian consumer is after. Now, Panasonic has – somewhat refreshingly – launched a device that isn’t a giant phablet while still offering a decent look and feel and a respectable spec sheet, the Eluga S Mini. Let’s see what it’s got to offer.
As its name suggests, the Eluga S Mini is designed to be a little smaller than other devices launched in the market these days, and with a 4.7-inch display, it is certainly a little smaller. That 4.7-inch display is an HD IPS panel, and underneath there’s 1GB of RAM helping a 1.4 Ghz octa-core processor. There’s 8GB of expandable storage onboard and sadly, Android 4.4.2 KitKat is running the show here. Still, all of this for just RS 8,990 isn’t too bad at all. Especially when we consider that these devices often feature low-resolution displays and barely much memory at all. As for the imaging side of things, there’s an 8-megapixel camera around the back, with a respectable 5-megapixel shooter around the front.
This is a dual-SIM device, and it only supports 3G, there’s no LTE support here. However, there is support for 21 Indian languages, making this a device that anyone in the Indian market can start to use. Fun features elsewhere include Blink Play, allowing users to trigger a selfie with a blink, or a wink. Speaking of the new device, Pankaj Rana of Panasonic India said that “Indian customers desire multiple options for whatever they start liking, we worked on the consumer demand and came up with a Mini version of Eluga S, however upgraded with an innovative Frost-effect design.”
The device should be available from the usual channels shortly, and it seems to be only available in a frost white color.