Panasonic has just released its much awaited smartphone, the Panasonic Eluga. The company held on to its announcement of the release date of their latest smartphone in Europe. According to Expansys, the Panasonic Eluga will be sold for £369 and approximately €460, prices is said to vary among other countries. Panasonic’s latest handset boasts of its elegant design and its waterproof features making it ideal for consumers with active lifestyles, it does have a few disadvantages though. While the Panasonic Eluga supports quadband GSM, its UMTS and HSPA connectivity is only limited to 2100 MHz and 900 MHz, which North American consumers will not find very interesting. The phone is said to be have a price tag of around $600 in the US.
The Panasonic Eluga was first announced by the manufacturer last December 2011 and was showcased during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 earlier this year. In addition, NTT DoCoMo carries this mobile phone as the P-04D and can be availed by its subscribers bundled with its postpaid plans.
Some definitive factors provide the Panasonic Eluga with the ability to attract attention. The phone has sharper edges as compared to new smartphones released in the market and its depth is also very impressive. It measures 123 x 62 x 7.8 mm which makes the Eluga super-slim and weighs about 103 grams. By default, the phone runs a later version Android 2.3 OS. Critics says that Panasonic should come up an OS update as soon as possible if the company does not want to get left behind from new smartphones introduced in the market. In response to this, Panasonic has given an assurance that it would be releasing the Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update for the Eluga this October 2012.
Panasonic Eluga is powered by a TI OMAP 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM. The phone also has an internal storage of 8 GB. It has a 4.3 inch OLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels and pixel density of approximately 256 ppi. The device houses an 8 megapixel camera that can capture images at 3264 x 2448 pixels and it also has an autofocus feature and LED flash. Panasonic Eluga also has an IP57 certification which means that the phone is water resistant in depths of up to 1 meter for 30 minutes and it is also dust-proof. The device supports HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity with data speeds that can reach up to 21 mbps and 5.76 mbps, respectively.
