After a series of teasers, Panasonic has finally taken the wraps off its first octa-core smartphone and put it up for sale in the Indian market.
The P81, which is currently on sale via Snapdeal, is available for an early bird price of Rs. 17,999 or roughly equivalent to $307. After the promo, the handset will retail for Rs. 18,990 or $325.
Panasonic says the handset's selling point is the ability to multi-task and open two applications at the same time while the phone continues to run smooth as butter. In its latest teaser, Panasonic shows a montage of video clips showing a rocket ship launching into space, a race car zooming on the track and amusement park goers on a roller coaster ride.
"Is this what you think of speed? Speed is nothing but a thought born in human mind, so we thought of P81. Octa-core processor. Swift. Smooth. Sensational," Panasonic tells [video] viewers in its latest teaser.
Though we haven't taken a close-up look at Panasonic's latest offering yet, it looks quite impressive on paper for a mid-range phone. The P81 runs on an unspecified 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, but judging by its price point, it could be the MediaTek chip seen in other octa-core phones in the same price range.
It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of disk space expandable to 32GB via microSD and comes with a Multi-Play option that "allows you to open two windows at one time and work on multiple applications simultaneously without slowness or lagging." Quite disappointingly, the P81 runs on the older Android Jelly Bean, though Panasonic tries to compensate by incorporating its own Play Life UI on top.
The P81 belongs to the phablet category with a 5.5-inch IPS HD display with 720 x 1280 resolution. On the back side, the phone sports a 13-megapixel camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture and 28mm wide lens. The phone also has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling and runs on a 2500 mAh battery.
Panasonic hopes to assuage any feelings of disappointment that may crop up due to the phone's older OS by incorporating features such as Multi-Play as well as Gesture Play and File Manager.
"With its smart options like Gesture Play and File Manager, Panasonic P81 is there to offer you a never before experience. Assign gestures for your various apps that you use frequently and just draw them on your screen and access all you favorite apps even without unlocking your smartphone," says the P81 product description on the Snapdeal listing. "Manage your smartphone's memory with its Device Cleaner - which automatically keeps a check on your device storage capacity and lets you install more applications."
The P81 comes in a black leatherette finish and will be available in other retail stores starting Tuesday. The phone comes with a number of "freebies worth Rs. 11,900," including subscriptions to Evernote, Readwhere, Hungama, India Today, Hot-n-Trendy Space and other apps and a flip cover with screen guard.
