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Panasonic is re-entering the smartphone market outside of Japan, with a new Android smartphone announced for Europe.
(Credit: Panasonic)
The Eluga will be the company’s first European foray for many years, and will standout from the pack with a 4.3-inch qHD resolution OLED display. Like Samsung’s excellent AMOLED screens, the Eluga’s display looks fantastic in hands-on pictures we’ve seen so far, with rich colours and deep blacks.
The smartphone is also extremely lightweight, weighing in at 103 grams, and is only 7.8mm thick. Impressively, Panasonic has made the Eluga water- and dustproof, with an ingress protection rating of 54.
Panasonic packs quite a bit of tech into this thin frame, with an 8-megapixel camera, 8GB storage and NFC capabilities. Custom software on the phone will also make the Eluga compatible with Panasonic’s Viera range of TVs and home theatre equipment.
The Eluga won’t have the processing power of some of its more recent competitors, though, with Panasonic opting for a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP chipset. The device will launch with Android 2.3 rather than Android 4.0, though Panasonic is promising an update before the middle of the year.
There’s no word yet as to whether Panasonic intends to launch the Eluga in Australia.
