The sub Rs 10,000 budget quad core segment in the smartphone arena is heating up at a pretty fast pace in India courtesy of the Moto G ruling the Rs 10,000-15,000 segment. Panasonic had launched the P31 back in March and is now available for around Rs 9,999 and it will be fighting it off against the Lava Iris 406q which is another budget quad core smartphone available for Rs 6,999. Let us see how the two of them stack up against each other:
Display and Processor
The display unit of the Iris 406q is a 4 inch one which has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. It comes second to the 5 inch display of the Panasonic P31 which has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The Panasonic P31 wins courtesy of a bigger display which eventhough may not be the brightest units on sale, performs better than the 4 inch unit of the Iris 406q.
Coming to what is under the hood, the Iris 406q has a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 processor under the hood coupled with a 1GB RAM. On the other hand, the P31 gets a 1.3 GHz quad core processor from Mediatek which is a better performer than the Snapdragon counterpart. It is bogged down a bit by the 512MB RAM coupled with it so it is a mixed bag in the chipset arena.
Camera and Internal Storage
Coming to the imaging department, the Panasonic P31 comes with an 8MP rear camera with a LED flash which has support for 1080p video recording which is simply great as you don’t get this in the sub Rs 10,000 budget usually. It gets coupled with a VGA front camera. The Iris 406q gets a 5MP rear camera with a LED flash and support for 720p video recording and the camera unit is no match for the P31. It also gets a VGA front snapper.
Internal storage capacities of the Iris 406q as well as the P31 stand at 4GB and both can be expanded by another 32GB with the help of a microSD card so it’s pretty much a tie in this department.
Battery and Features
The battery unit of the P31 is a 2,000 mAh one which will last it a day with ease considering the fact that it does not have a really powerful screen and the hardware limitations won’t allow for too much of multitasking. The battery of the Iris 406q is rated at 1,700 mAh and it will last you a day with ease too.
The Iris 406q runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and there’s a 4.4 KitKat update on the way as well. The Pansonic P31 however runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean but makes up for that with the impressive software package it comes loaded with. It gets gesture controls, multitasking abilities during calls and has a heat sink design which controls the dissipation of heat from the device.
Key Specs
| Model | Panasonic P31 | Lava Iris 406Q |
| Display | 5 inches, 854 X 480 | 4 inches, WVGA |
| Processor | 1.3GHz Dual Core | 1.2 GHz Quad Core |
| RAM | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Internal Storage | 4 GB, Expandable up to 32 GB | 4 GB, Expandable up to 32 GB |
| OS | Android 4.2 Jelly Bean | Android 4.3 Jelly Bean |
| Camera | 8MP/ VGA | 5 MP, VGA |
| Battery | 2000mAh | 1700 mAh |
| Price | Rs.9999 | Rs.6999 |
Price and Conclusion
The two smartphones put forth a strong case but in our opinion, the P31 comes across as a better device courtesy of a better processor, screen, camera and its software abilities. The Iris 406q even though comes with better software and RAM support, loses the plot in the imaging and processing department.
