Panasonic has added another affordable smartphone to its Eluga series with the Tapp handset.
Equipped with modest specifications, the device has a very fast operating fingerprint sensor coupled with an Android for Work integration. The superfast scanner is embedded on the home button in the front. According to Pankaj Rana, the business head of the Mobility Division, the device is capable of recognizing fingers and thumbs in a split second. Owing to the Android for Work feature support, work and personal apps are considered as two separate entities. Work apps and corporate accounts cannot interact with personal apps and vice versa, thereby providing additional security. The Japanese manufacturer has made the dual SIM smartphone available in either champagne gold or silver gray color options.
Body Material, Dimensions and Weight
Although a budget handset, Panasonic has designed its offering with a fully metal unibody to showcase a premium design. This ensures that the device is both sturdy and premium looking. Interestingly, the choice of metal does not make the gadget very big or heavy. In other words, the Eluga Tapp remains compact both in your hand and pocket. The smartphone has a size of 143 x 71 x 8.15mm and comes with a weight of 138g.
Screen Size and Display, Pixel Resolution and Density
Even as screen sizes of 5.5 inches and higher are becoming popular, the Tapp features a full HD 5-inch screen. This accounts for very close to 68 percent screen-to-body ratio. Rendering support for multi-touch, the IPS LCD screen has a pixel resolution of 720 x 1280 and a pixel density of 294ppi. These numbers offer really good results considering the screen size of the handset. Also, because of the IPS LCD functionality, you can rest assured of wide viewing angles to help in better reading, gaming and other such activities with this device. A protective screen cover is available as an accessory along with the device to enhance the safety of your display.
Primary and Secondary Shutterbugs
The Panasonic Eluga Tapp has the normal snappers that are found in its counterparts of the same price range. At the rear, there is an 8MP autofocus shooter with LED flash and 3264 x 2448 image resolution. This camera records 1080p videos @ 30fps. On the front, the handset houses a 5MP snapper with digital zoom and can record 720p HD videos. It must be mentioned that both shutterbugs do not have any outstanding features that make them stand apart from other smartphone cameras. However, some noteworthy functions of the camera are digital zoom, gesture shot, face and smile detection, voice capture and face beauty.
Under the Hood Configuration
The Eluga Tapp comes loaded with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM for internal storage. This 16GB can be increased still further by 32GB using a memory card externally. For the CPU, the device uses a quad core processor that ticks at 1.25GHz. Regarding the graphics processor and chipset used, no details have been obtained when this article is written.
As for the operating system installed, the Android smartphone comes with Marshmallow 6.0 installed out of the box. Although not the latest version of Android, users can still take advantage of many features introduced for the first time in Marshmallow.
Battery and Battery Life
As is the usual trend, the Tapp houses a non-removable battery. The 2,800 mAh Li-ion battery does not support wireless and quick charging functionalities. Taking inputs from unofficial sources into consideration, the smartphone has a standby time of 280 hours and a talk time of 10 hours. Music and video playback hours are a maximum of 28 and seven hours respectively. Added to this, the fact that the handset does not use a big screen ensures that the battery does not drain rapidly. This allows you to use the smartphone for a fairly long period of time on a single charge.
Connectivity and Sensor Options
Although the Panasonic Eluga Tapp does not offer some of the latest connectivity modes like NFC, the standard choices abound in plenty. These include Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n, direct and hotspot), Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, a microUSB v2.0 connector, 4G VoLTE, GPS, FM radio, an infrared port and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Other than the high speed fingerprint sensor, the handset is also home to other sensors like an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer and a proximity sensor.