Panasonic launched their Panasonic P11 smartphone sometime back and it has been getting all the attention because of the Alien ad in which the “Alien” wants the phone. The alien may want the phone, but do you? Lets find out.
The Panasonic P11 seems like a typical mid-range 5inch phone which it is, but there is a small difference at the core. Instead of opting for a quad-core MediaTek processor, Panasonic have decided to go with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200 and added a nice 720p HD display to complement the dashing color the phone comes in.
Video Review
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrr0mUvtRjI
Design, Build Quality and Handling
Panasonic P11 looks refreshing thanks to the bright color choice and a different design language. Panasonic P11 has nice curved edges that make it quite easy to handle despite the big display. P11 comes with a couple of exchangeable back covers – black cover is a matte finish cover while the white one is a glossy finish one. The fluorescent color that comes in the box is also a matte finish one.
On the front, we have the 720p HD display above which there is the earpiece. To the left side of the earpiece, we have the front facing camera and the ambient and proximity sensor combination.
Below the display, there is the usual set of three capacitive touch keys for navigation.
On the right side of the phone, we have the power lock button.
On the bottom, we have nothing but the microphone and on the left side, we have just the volume rocker.
At the top, we have a microUSB port and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the back of the device, we have a 8MP camera with an LED flash right next to it. There is a speaker grill at the bottom. Like we mentioned before, the back cover is removable and on opening the cover, we see a microSD card slot and two SIM card slots – all above the battery compartment. Only one SIM card slot supports 3G.
As far as handling is concerned, the matte finish offers a nice grip and the phone feels quite good in the hand. The power lock key and the volume rocker are easily accessible and offer nice feedback.
Overall, the Panasonic P11 is a good looking device except for the color(personal opinion) and feels quite comfortable in the hand.
Display
One of the highlights of Panasonic P11 is its 5inch HD display which sports a resolution of 1280x720pixels(294ppi).
The display is good in terms of contrast, brightness and color saturation but suffers because of poor viewing angles.
Overall the display is good if you forgive its poor viewing angles.
Hardware and Performance
What separates the Panasonic P11 from the rest of the mid-range Indian phablet crowd is the fact that it comes with a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor instead of a MediaTek processor. There is 1GB of RAM and graphics are taken care by Adreno 203 GPU. Out of the 1GB RAM, 800MB RAM is usable and when the device is idle, around 480MB is free. There is 4GB internal storage out of which 2.8GB is usable. You get around 1.4GB for apps and another 1.4GB is user accessible. Obviously, it comes with a microSD card slot.
In terms of performance, the phone is quite sluggish. The overall UI feels quite slow and jittery throughout. Using the phone seemed to be a small pain as you have to wait for everything. Clicking on an app takes some time to open it and even the most basic task like dragging down the notification bar slows down the UI.
The benchmark performance was average and you can check it out below.
For more information about the benchmark performance of Panasonic P11, you can head over to the benchmark post.
Overall, the performance of Panasonic P11 is below average.
Camera
Panasonic P11 comes with an 8MP camera at the back that can record 720p videos and a 2MP front facing camera. The camera is nothing special as it is just a regular mid-range camera.
The camera UI is slightly different from the regular mid-range phones and comes with separate screens for photos and videos. On the left side of the viewfinder, we have four icons – first one is the settings icon which reveals a settings menu with basic options like aspect ratio, white balance, exposure, face detection and so on. Below it we have the shooting mode icon which shows only three modes – normal, speedily and panorama. Then there is the scene mode which shows just four basic options – auto, sports, night and portrait. Below it we have the flash toggle. On the right side, we have the front and rear camera toggle to the left of the bar which houses the photo/video toggle, the shutter key and the gallery shortcut. Video mode offers even fewer settings options.
In terms of camera quality, the images were average. We have seen much better images from an 8MP camera(but not the same price) and we have seen worse image quality from 13MP cameras at the same price. The default camera features are quite limited and the image quality is average.
You can check out the camera samples below.
For more samples, you can check out our camera samples post.
Here you can check out the camera review right below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaY9CeK0UJI
Gaming
The gaming performance too was average. Like most of the UI, most of the games lagged continuously and the gaming experience wasn’t the best. However, casual games like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers came out slightly better. You can check out the gameplay videos and gaming review right below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y7uYuT2R4Q
Gaming Review
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8oKiP-deo
Software
Panasonic P11 runs on a almost(99%) stock version of Android 4.1.2 JellyBean. The only change from stock JellyBean is the presence of a dual SIM settings options that lets you set default SIMs for making calls, sending messages and data connectivity. There is very little bloatware and you get apps like – Hungama, CamCard and WeChat preloaded. The rest of the things are very very stock. The phone dialer and contacts app have been skinned very slightly. The default video player is not as versatile as we would have liked, but you can always download third party players like MX player which plays almost any format.
Connectivity
Like most smartphones, the Panasonic P11 comes with connectivity options like Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, microUSB and GPS. There is dual SIM support like most of the Indian phablets.
Conclusion
For a price of Rs. 15,000 , the Panasonic P11 is definitely not worth it. The build is great, but it is let down by very poor software and the laggy UI. The camera and gaming performance are below average as well. You might want to consider other choices in the same price range.