Panasonic Eluga Ray 700. Pic courtesy/YouTube

Panasonic's "face unlock" feature for its Eluga Ray 700 smartphone was officially unveiled in India. However, facial recognition does not come as a forced application and users are free to use the fingerprint sensor or other conventional ways to lock/unlock the device, officials from the Japanese electronics major said in a statement.

The device was launched last September at Rs 9,999 with a 13MP Sony IMX 258 rear camera, 13MP front camera with flash and a 5000mAh battery. Other key features of the smartphone are dual SIM (GSM and GSM), connectivity options like Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, USB OTG, FM, 3G and 4G, and 32GB internal memory that is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card.