Panasonic Eluga Ray 550 enters a highly competitive sub 10k segment. It is metal body mobile with promising internals and a competitive price tag. It has Panasonic’s own virtual assistant ARBO. It is priced at Rs 8999. It may not have a powerful hardware specification, but let’s look at the mobile and see how it fares against its competitors in the segment.
Design
Eluga Ray 550 has got a metal body and the device feels very nice in the hand. It has a 5.7-inch Full vision display with very thin bezels and 18:9 aspect ratio. It is available in 3 colors and my review unit in Blue looks the best. The long aspect ratio of the mobile with smooth rounded corners and matte finish back makes it an ergonomic design. It has a dedicated SD card and dual sim card slots. The speakers are mono and placed at the back. The fingerprint sensor is also at the back. It does not have any physical navigation keys. Also, the mobile has a notification LED on the top, near the front camera. The front camera also has an LED. Overall, the Eluga Ray 550 has got a premium design and a quality feels in the hand.
Display
It has a 5.7 inch IPS LCD display. The screen has an 18:9 aspect ratio and can support HD+ resolution. The display is good under all light conditions. It has good brightness and contrast levels. The color is natural, yet they pop out. It is a 720p HD screen, but at this screen size, the sharpness is good on text and images as well.
Hardware and Performance
Panasonic Eluga Ray 550 is powered by a MediaTek 6737H processor and has 3 GB of RAM. It has 32 GB of internal storage. It does not have gyro sensor for VR but has the magnetic compass for maps. The performance of the mobile is just about average. The 3 GB RAM is good for multitasking, but the processor and GPU let it down in terms of speed and lag free experience. It heats up mildly after prolonged usage, but does not overheat. This mobile is a basic mobile and not meant for high end graphics. Yet I played a few games on it and found that the mobile can handle it well. But if pushed to the limits, the gaming experience shows frame drops and overall sluggishness. For everyday average usage, this mobile would suffice. It handles your regular apps and lean games with no issues.
Software
Eluga Ray 550 runs on Nougat version 7.0. It has a stock Android UI with a few pre-installed apps. Luckily these apps can be uninstalled. Navigating the UI, I don’t see any lags. But as you install apps, the lag starts to show up while opening apps. Eluga Ray 550 has a clean UI with a sensible set of features.
Arbo
Arbo is the unique highlight of this device. Arbo is a machine learning algorithm that learns your usage pattern and suggests you apps. The AI suggestions can be turned off and manually the favorite apps can be chosen to be shown. It can also completely turned off by signing out. It is interesting to see such high-end features in a mid range mobile. But it needs to be further optimized for its hardware and I see a huge potential in ARBO.
Camera
Panasonic Eluga Ray 550 has a 13 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front camera. The Camera UI is easy to use. It has a few scene modes and White balance, Exposure compensation can be controlled, though no manual mode. The HDR mode is effective, but there is a huge delay in processing photos. The quality of photos is very good in daylight. The colors pop out, exposure is perfect and you also get a good natural depth of focus. Under low light, focus struggles and the images also have a noise. The front camera has noise and pixelates under day light also. Check out the camera samples.
Battery
Panasonic Eluga Ray 550 is powered by a 3250 mAh battery. It has a 10 W charger in the box and charging takes about 3 hours from 0 to 100%. Once charged the mobile lasts for 1 day of moderate usage. This mobile is not built for heavy usage or intensive gaming, but even on intensive usage, I get an average screen on time of about 4-5 hours.
Verdict
Panasonic Eluga Ray 550 is available for Rs 8999. At this price, there are many mobiles in the market. Itel S42, Moto E4 Plus, Redmi 5 and a lot more. Redmi 5 is definitely a better mobile to buy at this price and it is available in select offline stores. If you are not comfortable buying a mobile online or you really don’t want to buy a Redmi mobile or itel, then you may buy the Panasonic Eluga Ray 550. For the price you pay, you get an Intelligent Smartphone (Arbo), decent camera, elegant design and a nice display. But the mobile’s processor gives you just about average performance. The blue color variant of the Ray 550 looks very stylish. So if you are looking to buy a very basic mobile, from a reliable brand and with distinct looks, go for the Eluga Ray 550.
Link to buy – Flipkart
