Panasonic returns on the European smartphones market and present Eluga, a thin terminal with a 4.3-inch display, water and dust resistant.
The simple and elegant 7.8mm thick body hides a 4.3-inch OLED display with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels and a dual-core 1GHz OMAP4430 processor. Panasonic Eluga comes pre-loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but the Japan-based company promised they are working hard to provide the Ice Cream Sandwich update sometime during the summer.
Wearing waterproof and dustproof clothes, the freshly-announced Panasonic Eluga is the company’s first smartphone to sell outside Japan.
Panasonic Eluga weighs in just 103 grams, still, the company’s engineers managed to fit an 8MP camera with autofocus, 8GB of internal flash memory, WiFi and 3G connectivity and NFC support.
The Japanese company hopes to sell not less than 1.5 million Panasonic Eluga units in Europe in the next 12 months.
The plans regarding the launch of the new smartphone were unveiled by Laurent Abadie, Panasonic Europe CEO, at the company’s annual event in Hamburg. Abadie highlighted that the company he runs set the 1.5 million sold units in Europe as goal for the next fiscal year (April 2012 – March 2013).
The Panasonic Eluga comes with “Swipe and Share” technology, compatible with the Panasonic VIERA TV line-up. With a weight of only 103 grams, the device will become one of the lightest Android-powered devices on the European market.
Panasonic Eluga has a D-shaped thin design and measures 123×62,0×7,8mm. It is waterproof and dustproof using IP57 international standard. The device can be used at depths up to 1m for about 30 minutes. It features an incorporated NFC chip that makes it ready for “no touch” interactions and NFC-based payments.
The Swipe and Share technology allows the user to view the pictures stored on their smartphone directly on their VIERA TV or upload them in the cloud. The VieraRemote app will transform your Panasonic Eluga into a remote control for products like VIERA TV, DIGA Blu-ray player and recorder, home cinema systems or digital surveillance cameras in the Panasonic line-up.
Unfortunately, the Japan-based company haven’t revealed the capacity of the Panasonic Eluga’s battery. Panasonic will exhibit their new smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2012, in Barcelona, starting February 27th. The release date of Panasonic Eluga was set for this spring.
