14 DAY TRIAL // Panasonic promised earlier this year that it would enter the European smartphone market with several Android devices. The first two were unveiled back in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the ELUGA and ELUGA Power.
Both are powered by Google’s Android platform, but the ELUGA Power will be shipped with Ice Cream Sandwich operating system on board, whereas the Panasonic ELUGA runs only Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.
However, Panasonic confirmed plans to deliver an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the ELUGA soon after the smartphone gets launched on the market.
Well, it appears that the device has just gone live in Europe, a bit earlier than expected. Starting today, Android enthusiasts living in Germany can purchase the smartphone via Amazon for €400 (about $525) outright.
Moreover, the Panasonic ELUGA will be released in the UK on April 24, where it will be available for around £365 (€440 or $580) off-contract.
Panasonic ELUGA is an IP57 certified phone, which means it is dust and water resistant, as well as water proof (up to 1 meter and 30 minutes).
The smartphone is equipped with a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor clocked at 1 GHz and packs only 8GB of internal memory and 1GB of RAM.
Unfortunately, Panasonic ELUGA does not feature a microSD card slot for memory expansion, which might be a real issue even for the average users.
Furthermore, the ELUGA boasts an 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and LED flash, as well as a hyper-vibrant 4.3-inch OLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports 540 x 960 pixels resolution.
Last but not least, Panasonic ELUGA features HSDPA (21Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps) support, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR.
The phone’s 1150 mAh Li-Ion battery should provide users with up to 300 hours of standby time or up to 4 hours of talk time.