There was a time when mobile phones made by Panasonic was readily available all over the world. But the Japanese company decided to leave the worldwide market in 2006 and just concentrated on manufacturing and selling phones in Japan, where it has had a lot of success. Currently, 20 percent of the mobile phones in Japan are made by Panasonic.
After years of catering exclusively to the Japanese market, Panasonic is now ready to return to the global market. The company announced its intent last year with news that it will begin selling smartphones in Europe again this year.
The first phone that Panasonic is going to release is the Eluga, which some say stands for “Elegant User Gateway.”
The Eluga is an Android smartphone. It features a 4.3 inch touchscreen with a qHD 960 x 540 resolution, a 1Ghz dual core Texas Instruments processor and one gigabyte of RAM.
Right now, the Eluga will be installed with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. But Panasonic has already announced that an update will be coming out that will upgrade the OS to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Eluga is a tough phone. It is waterproof and dustproof. It can be submerged up to a meter and for as long as 30 minutes. It can also withstand a desert storm for up to eight hours. Adventurers and sports enthusiasts will definitely be looking at this phone as their next purchase.
Other additional features of the Eluga include NFC, an 8mp camera with autofocus, DLNA, 8Gb of internal memory and a microSD slot.
Originally posted on February 21, 2012 @ 7:38 pm