Panasonic is a Japan-based company which produces a wide array of electronics, from ceiling fans to cameras. The company is known for producing many different kinds of electronics except smartphones. However, it is not widely known that Panasonic produces smartphones too, though its smartphones cater to the mid-range segment of the market and are mainly sold in Asia, especially in India. The Japanese company launched the Panasonic Eluga Arc handset in India back in April this year and it has just launched its successor, the Panasonic Eluga Arc 2.
As for the specs, the Eluga Arc 2 packs a 5-inch HD On-Cell Touch display. The 2.5D curved glass is protected by Asahi Dragontrail and makes use of Outdoor-Pro Display technology to improve sunlight legibility. The device is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and comes with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage which can be expanded a further 128 GB via a microSD card slot. For optics, the smartphone sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash while the front sports a 5-megapixel camera. The body of the device packs a decently sized 2450mAh battery. The Eluga Arc 2 also happens to be a dual-sim smartphone, accepting a Micro SIM and a Nano SIM in its SIM card slot. However, it is a hybrid SIM card slot which means it can either accept two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. A wide array of the usual connectivity options come with the device, including 4G-LTE with support for VoLTE, Wi-Fi, GPS, FM radio and Bluetooth. It also supports USB on-the-go (OTG) and has a nifty feature called Turbo Download. This feature will basically combine Wi-Fi and mobile data to provide faster download speeds.
On the software side of things, the Eluga Arc 2 comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. It also comes with various sensors packed into its CNC aluminium body, including an accelerometer, proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. The Eluga Arc 2 will be available in two colors, Gold and Rose Gold, and will be priced at Rs. 12, 290 ($184) which is slightly cheaper than its predecessor which was priced at Rs. 12,490 ($187). In a highly competitive smartphone market like India, it is hard to tell whether Panasonic’s latest offering will make it big or crash and burn.