We see if Panasonic's re-entry into the smartphone market, the Eluga, can compete with
Sony's new
Xperia S.
Form
Sony Xperia S - 128x64x10.6mm, 144g
Panasonic Eluga - 123x62x7.8mm, 103g
With the Eluga, Panasonic has opted for a sheer rectangular shape with very hard edges - it's not a far cry from the Lumia Nokia 800.
The back panel is smooth and curved and apart from a neatly squared camera port there's nothing to disrupt the stretch of premium-looking bodywork. The screen really dominates the front of the handset and the bezel round the edge is minimal.
The Eluga has a couple of nifty tricks up its sleeve also. For starters it has IP57 certification, which means it is both dust and water resistant, and it's actually waterproof up to a depth of 1 metre.
From the front the Xperia S actually looks remarkably similar to its opponent, the most noticeable differences, other than the branding, are the slightly softer corners and the idiosyncratic transparent bar at the bottom of Sony's device - which we rather like.
The back panel has a much more pronounced curve than the Panasonic Eluga and the outside edges are flatter.
Generally the Xperia S isn't anywhere near as curved as its predecessor, the Xperia Arc S, but it's also a much more solid device in terms of materials used, the build quality and how the handset sits in the hand.
While the Panasonic Eluga does look nice Sony has once again illustrated that it's capable of putting a more interesting spin on the status quo and for that reason we're giving this round to the Xperia S.
Winner - Sony Xperia S
Display
The Eluga features a 4.3-inch capacitive OLED touchscreen with a 960x540 pixel resolution, a pixel density of 256 pixels-per-inch (ppi) and multi-touch capability.
Sony's Xperia S has the same sized 4.3-inch glass front, which is an LED-backlit LCD capacitive number sporting a 1280x720 pixel resolution and an iPhone-beating 342ppi pixel density.
The Xperia S's display has a huge lead over most of the competition thanks to the spectacularly clear visuals it can push out.
Winner - Sony Xperia S
Storage
Panasonic's Eluga comes loaded with 8GB of built-in storage space and 1GB of RAM but sadly there isn't a card slot anywhere to be found on the device so you're not going to be able to bump it up with micro SD.
The Sony Xperia S has a much larger internal capacity at 32GB. Onboard RAM is the same as the Eluga at 1GB and there's also no card slot here.
A lack of micro SD is disappointing but Sony's handset wins out by having a lot more space on board.
Winner - Sony Xperia S
ProcessorThe Panasonic Eluga is equipped with a dual core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 processor based on ARM's Cortex-A9 architecture. It uses fast dual-channel memory, to make the most of both cores, and a PowerVR SGX540 graphics processor (GPU) clocked at 304MHz.
Sony's new Xpera S runs a dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 S3 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz and paired with an Adreno 220 GPU. This setup features single-channel 333MHz/266MHz memory.
Both devices should give fast performance on the current crop of demanding apps and games but you might find things are a little zippier on the Panasonic Eluga's setup.
Winner - Panasonic Eluga
Operating System
Both phones will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread but with planned updates for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 at a later date.
This will be a welcome improvement, while both phones will currently run Gingerbread quite well, there should be a substantial performance boost with the new version as well as a number of useful features, such as an improved multi-tasking interface and a more streamlined menu system.
In any case, both devices will be on the same level at launch and after they update.
Winner - Draw
CameraPanasonic's handset has an 8-megapixel primary camera with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution, autofocus, LED flash, touch focus, geo-tagging, image stabilisation and a digital zoom.
Sony has really pushed the boat out with the Xperia S giving it a 12-megapixel primary with a 4000x3000 pixel resolution and the company's own Exmor R sensor technology.
Video capture is 1080p for the primary camera and features continuous autofocus, a video light and video stabilisation, while the secondary 1.3-megapixel camera can capture at 720p.
Other features include geo-tagging, autofocus, touch focus, a back-illuminated sensor (BSI), face and smile detection, image stabilisation and 3D panoramic sweep capture.
This is an easy win for Sony with a much more feature-packed camera setup which should also dish out better quality video and images thanks to Sony's premium sensor hardware.
Winner - Sony Xperia S
Final Thoughts
In most areas Sony's device wipes the floor with the Eluga, however the crucial point is the processor where Panasonic's handset comes out on top.
Not by a huge stretch though, which means we think as an overall package the Xperia S will probably prove a more rewarding experience.
That's not to say the Eluga is a bad device by any means, it's still a very competent smartphone with plenty to recommend.
We just think Sony's offering is a little more well-rounded.
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6:56 AM
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