Panasonic Eluga DL1 waterproof Android Over the course of the last decade Panasonic all but vanished from the European consumer mobile phone market but it’s back with a bang with the Eluga - an acronym of ‘elegant user-oriented gateway’. Or at least back with a loud thump - the bang is really the Eluga Power, a 5in 720p Qualcomm Krait-powered beast due later this …
I was having a conversation with someone at work the other day about the new Apple water damage technology and we concluded that really, all moden mobile tech, games console, phone, mp3 player, camera should all have a minimum of shower proof tech built in, surely it should be possible by now to make everything shower proof, especially if this British summer weather continues, these are products we need!
Well arn't producers supposed to listen to us, the consumer? There are so many ideas/suggestions on El Reg comment sections about what makes the perfect tablet/laptop/phone they should make us all a focus group! Infact, surely there is the basis of an article or two there, if we can vote on the worst film never made, how about we take a vote on the best mobile device never built.
I personally completely agree with you about this being a great feature. When the £200 Motorola Defy (waterproof, rugged) came out, I became actually obsessed with how I might get hold of one. But then the equal-performance Huawei Ascend G300 came out for £100 and I realised phones getting cheaper might solve the problem of them breaking more easily: it's not such a loss.
However, as far as manufacturers are concerned, needed features are a means of differentiating between differently priced tiers within their range: so you get something that has what you need - but at a price.
Ultimately what the consumer always wants, to have a better product for less which lasts longer, is in conflict with what the producer always wants, which is to give a worse product for more which has to be replaced sooner. The conflict in economics is known as "utility maximisation vs profit maximisation", I think.
".....surely it should be possible by now to make everything shower proof...." Cue smile. Just a few weeks ago a colleague ruined his iBone4 trying to prove the effectiveness of the "waterproof" cover he had bought online. Be very wary of any such claims of waterproofing if they do not meet something like a Mil spec.
/"Yeeaarggh" - kersplash!
In a word, Apple. Like a lot of things they do with their flashy advertising they push how thin something is like that's a feature. Sadly this leads to other manufacturers following suit and they all get stuck on this endless fashion of producing thin phones where you can do so much but doing so will kill your battery in less than a day. I know for a fact that at least HTC view this as a market trend so it's safe to assume others do too. Software optimisations can only take you so far and with higher resolution screens, multi-core CPUs and other tech. inside batteries just haven't improved as much as the rest in order to keep up.
I own an HTC One X and the battery at 1800mAh is an improvement over my Desire HD's pathetic 1230mAh but it's software tweaks (some annoying ones) that apparently help battery more than increasing the size. I'd prefer to see a combination of battery and performance tweaks because if you just keep increasing the battery you'll end up where we do with Windows requirements - they just go up and up for the same performance as last year.
One of the power saving tweaks that bothers me most is also not something you can change using the default Sense skin. When it goes past midnight all data connections are disabled until around 8am. In fairness when I wake the phone up and unlock it the data connection is usually enabled before I can launch any apps but it also means any notifications are missed. I happen to be awake a lot past midnight and I could see it being a problem for others. Some manufacturers seem to be realising that people who own a smartphone would like to be able to use it and the RAZR MAXX was the first but hopefully not the last. After all, what's the point in owning a phone that can do so much if you have to disable everything to make it last a day?
It's not about being a "fanboi" I think the original poster was trying to get accross the fact that FOR HIM the iPhone battery is more than adequate.
You do make your buying decisions based on whats right for YOUR needs don't you? I mean you wouldnt just buy an Apple iPhone or a <make>Android just because it looks nice?
I like El Reg but the absolute hatred of one camp or another is beginning to get to me know, it used to be Winblo$e vs Linux now its all Crapple vs Fandroids and it's getting a bit old
Come on people, the phone you get is the one YOU decided on, doesnt mean it's any better or worse than any other per se, just that one make / model might not meet YOUR requirements.
Personally, took my iPhone 4 on a 2 day safari round the Sahara, used my camera, 3G and email (Very) occasionally and didnt need to charge it once, now if that makes me Steve Jobs Jr then so be it.
Wouldnt it be nice if we could all just get along :-)
Because they need to add more shiny things to make them all different.
I'm using an Xperia mini pro that has coped with 50 hours on a charge by removing all the stuff that Sony Ericsson helpfully left on it. Ease of replacing the rom is the first thing I look for on a phone now :)
Agreed. My HTC Desire has an OEM 3aH battery now and it only needs charging twice a week - and that's just to ensure it has enough reserve for emergencies. If I didn't use it as a music player it could probably last a full week and never show orange on the battery meter.
One of my concerns when I replace it is that a lot of current models seem to have case designs that preclude fitting a larger battery. My colleague has the Desire HD and has to charge his phone every day to be safe :-/
I think it's IP67 compliance that gives the dustproof/waterproofness, not IP57.
I'm the owner of a Sony Xperia Active which is also IP67 compliant. Very useful to go swimming with the kids. Not to mention the food and drink spillages that occur. The wet finger tracking is pretty good but listening and speaking are rather muted until the waterproof membrane bit dries out. However, the panasonic seems to have my Active beat on screen size and processor speed.
The Ruggedization nich seems to be spreading...
The first digit is for dust, the second is for water, technically you would need IP68 for complete protection but IP57 is just as waterproof as IP67.
Interestingly level 7 only states that that water will not enter in quantaties sufficiant to damage the device. So it's fine for using in the rain and it will save the phone if you drop it in the bath but it's not really designed for taking the phone swimming.
Clearly, battery life won't be an issue. You won't be using it as a media player so the battery should last.
Ideal for Saturday nights out, some texting, Facebook and Google maps for restaurants.
Nice to see Panasonic back on the scene. My first three handsets were Panasonic. G520, gd93 & gd87.
This one looks ideal for outdoors professional types.
no need to test it, it would fail.
it's rated to handle up to 1 metre depth for 30 minutes I would think it would fail quite quickly if you went beyond those limits.
of course those ratings are only valid while the phone is in 100% perfect condition, I would fancy your chances even less after the waterproof charger socket cover has been opened and closed a few dozen times
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
