Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro first impressions: Wireless charging, notch display and more

Panasonic which mostly caters to the budget segment has launch a new mid-range smartphone with all the new trending features and specifications. Eluga X1 Pro features a notch display, supports wireless charging, and becomes the latest brand to ditch the 3.5mm audio jack.

Notch display is pretty common now but wireless charging and no headphone jack is restricted to only select devices. Panasonic is bundling a wireless charger as an introductory offer with the Eluga X1 Pro. The retail box also comes with a USB Type-C connecter to compensate for the lack of a headphone jack. The smartphone is priced at ₹26,990, and it will be available starting October 10.

In terms of design, the Eluga X1 Pro looks quite like the existing Android phones. The smartphone has a metal body wrapped in a 2.5D curved glass. It sports curved edges with a mirror-like glass back which looks good but is a fingerprint magnet. The dual-camera module at the rear panel has no protrusion. There's a rear fingerprint sensor, but it also supports face unlock for security.

Eluga X1 Pro features a large 6.18-inch display but the phone isn't big thanks to edge-to-edge screen. The notch on Eluga X1 Pro is slightly bigger than normal and is identical to the iPhone X.

The smartphone is a little on the heavy side though. It's considerably heavier than most smartphones which could be a problem for some users. Its weight adds on to the smartphone's thick build which makes it look bulky.

For performance, Eluga X1 Pro uses MediaTek's Helio P60 processor, and a 3,000mAh battery. A detailed review will give better results on the smartphone's overall performance. During my short usage of the phone, there were no lags and the phone was pretty smooth.

On the software front, it runs Android 8.1 Oreo with a custom UI on top. The animated icons were decent compared to most custom UIs but the notification panel was quite heavy. The icons are weirdly large and changing the font size didn't help either.

In the photography department, Eluga X1 Pro sports 16-megapixel and 5-megapixel dual rear cameras, and a 16-megapixel selfie camera. There are quite a lot of features to play around with like facemoji, live photo, time-lapse. The smartphone also has a professional mode for additional camera settings. It also comes with face beauty and night mode. I tried the 'backlight' feature with a few clicks and the difference in result was easily noticeable. It essentially adds more light to photos.

Keeping in mind the specifications and features on the Eluga X1 Pro, its price tag could be a deciding factor for the smartphone. Eluga X1 Pro will compete with smartphones in the market like Xiaomi Mi A2 and the Realme 2 Pro.