As the budget smartphone market is becoming more and more competitive in India, we got our hands on the Eluga A3 Pro to check how well it fares against the competition. In this article, we have reviewed the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro to test it for daily usage and gaming as well. Read on.

Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro Specifications

Physical Overview

Starting with the Build quality, you get a Metal back and sides, while the top and bottom of the phone are plastic. The phone does not feel cheap and is easy to hold.

Coming to the front, you get a 5.2-inch HD display. There are on-screen navigation buttons along with front-mounted fingerprint sensors. A front camera with sensors and a green LED sit above the display. Panasonic could have cut the front bezels and placed the Fingerprint sensor at the back.

At the back, a single rear camera along with dual LED flash sits at the back upper center. While the back panel is metal, the top and bottom are plastic. You will find ‘Panasonic’ and ‘Eluga’ branding at the back.

Coming to the sides, you get the volume rockers and the power button on the right side while the SIM card tray sits on the left side. In the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro has buttons made out of plastic. A microUSB port sits at the bottom and a 3.5mm earphone jack is placed at the top. The microUSB port is placed to the right side at the bottom.

Display

The Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro packs a 5.2-inch IPS-LCD display with HD (720x1280p) resolution and 282ppi Pixel density. It is is touchscreen display and the screen-to-body ratio is 69.2%. While the display is good for indoor usage, it gets some glare under direct sunlight. Although the display remains readable, it is difficult to watch movies or preview an image under direct sunlight.

Camera

In terms of cameras, the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro comes with a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and an 8MP front-facing unit. Here are the camera UI and samples under various lighting conditions.

Camera User Interface

Starting with the camera UI on the Panasonic Elua A3 Pro, it is an easy and basic interface with not much features. You can choose to take an image or record a video from the two shutter buttons. A preview of the last-captured image is given at the bottom corner. You can switch cameras, toggle HDR and flash easily.

Camera Samples

With a simple and basic UI, here are the images captured by the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro under various light conditions.

Daylight Samples

While the overall image was crisp and there was no shutter lag during daylight, we noticed a lack of detail in the image. On zooming in, some grains are also visible. Also, while taking HDR images even in daylight, you need to keep the phone steady for at least 2 seconds, which is not good.

Artificial Light Sample

As we shot images in artificial light using the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro, we noticed a certain shutter lag. Although not too prominent, the lag caused some of the images to shake. Here we have added a steady sample, but the loss of details and grains while zooming are still there.

Low-Light Sample

While low light photography is disappointing on the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro, you need to hold the phone steady to take images. There are noticeable shutter lag and grains in low light images.

Hardware and Performance

Talking about hardware, the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro is powered by a MediaTek MT6753 Octa-core processor, coupled with Mali T720MP3 GPU. This combination is accompanied by 3GB RAM and 32GB Internal storage, along with 128GB expansion option using a microSD card. Here are the benchmarks of the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro. We have benchmarked it on AnTuTu Benchmark, Nenamark 2, and Geekbench 4. Here are the results.

Gaming and performance

Running on Android 7.0 Nougat, the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro is smooth when it comes to daily usage and even gaming. We tried to play Asphalt 8 on the phone and it ran smoothly with no frame lapse or any other problem. Talking about Arbo, Panasonic has tried to provide an Artificial Intelligence Assistant which provides shortcuts based on user preferences. It is a good assistant but needs time to understand your preferences and does not offer a lot of customization options.

Battery and Connectivity

Packing a 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery, the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro offers exceptional battery life. It lasts easily for more than a day at moderate usage. The Eluga A3 Pro is a Dual Sim 4G VoLTE phone, which features Bluetooth, WiFi, Micro USB port, and a 3.5mm earphone jack. The only problem here is that it takes a good amount of time to charge – in our tests, the phone took more than 2 hours to charge fully. However, given the battery capacity, the charging time is acceptable.

Pricing and Availability

Priced at an affordable Rs. 12,790, the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro is available across offline retailers across the country.

Verdict

After detailed usage and tests, we can point out some pros and cons in the Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro. To start with, the display is not crisp outdoors, and the cameras are laggy when images are taken in low light. On the positive side, you get good performance and battery backup. The Panasonic Eluga A3 Pro is a decent phone in this price range, but you can also consider the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Mi Max 2, InFocus Epic 1 or Vivo Y55S.