Panasonic unveiled Panasonic P31 today after posting a few teasers. The Panasonic P31 is basically a MT6582 quad core smartphone which lies in a price segment presently being dominated by Moto G. The smartphone has been priced at 11,990 INR, which makes it look like a viable quad core option. Let’s take a look at the raw hardware specs.
Camera and Internal Storage
The primary auto focus camera has an 8 MP sensor which is a norm with MT6582 chipset based quad core phones like Gionee M2, Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus and many others, reason being the limitations of MT6582 SoC. Most of the last generations MT6589 devices will feature a 13 MP camera in the same price bracket. The highlight of this camera is its ability to record 1080p Full HD videos.
The front camera is a VGA shooter for bare minimum quality video chat. The internal storage is standard 4GB and can be extended to 32 GB using MicroSD support. The storage is similar to what most other smartphones are offering.
Processor and Battery
The processor used is MT6582 1.3 GHz quad core which is fast replacing last generation MT6589 series in budget quad core segment. The low cost chipset is a decent performer and is assisted by 512 MB RAM and Mali 400 MP2 GPU.
Battery capacity is 2000 mAh. Panasonic claims that this will provide you with 13h (2G) / 9h (3G) talk time and 650h (2G)/600h (3G) Standby time, which if true is decent enough for the price range. Of course, you could go with Gionee M2 with 4200 mAh battery if bigger battery is on top of your priority list.
Display and Features
The display used is 5 inches in size and bears FWVGA resolution. The pixel density of 195 ppi implies that it won’t be as sharp as the likes of Moto G and Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini with 720p HD resolution. Its not an IPS LCD panel. The display also comes with Ultra Oleophobic coating which makes it resistant to finger prints. Panasonic will also bundle a branded screen gaurd with this phone.
The operating system used is Android 4.2.2 jelly bean which is in no way a deal breaker, but is not as fancy as new and improved Android KitKat in Moto G.
On top of Android jelly bean, you will get Panasonic “Play Life” UI where the smartphone has in-built capability to understand Gestures with its “Gesture Play”, a draw-to-unlock gesture based feature, it also lets you multi-task while you play videos, with its “Pop-i Player”, organizes music with “Music cafe” and it also switches battery use modes with its “Ultimate Saver” feature.
Comparison
The phone comes with standard MT6582 specs sheet and will compete with phones like Moto G, Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini, Gionee M2 and Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus, all of which are selling for similar price.
Key Specs
| Model | Panasonic P31 |
| Display | 5 Inch , FWVGA |
| Processor | 1.3 GHz Quad Core |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Internal Storage | 4 GB, Expandable |
| OS | Android 4.2.2 |
| Camera | 8 MP/ VGA |
| Battery | 2000 mAh |
| Price | 11,990 INR |
Conclusion
The Chipset is quite standard but Panasonic has attempted to distinguish itself from the crowd by enhancing the software. How well this is integrated with the hardware remains to be seen. The phone looks at par with rest of its MT6582 brethren on paper but it will still find stiff completion from the hot seller Moto G.
