Panasonic Europe has unveiled its new Eluga smart phone, an slim waterproof Android handset that features built-in NFC technology.
Weighing in at just 103g, the Eluga packs a 4.3 inch, 960x540 capacitive OLED QHD screen onto a slender 23x62.0x7.8mm frame, making it one of the lightest and slimmest Android smart phones in Europe. The Eluga also stands out with standard IP57 water and dust proofing, which protects the phone when submerged up to a depth of one meter for 30 minutes.
For its first Android smart phone, Panasonic has also included embedded NFC technology for contactless payments, peer to peer transactions, and possibly for a new feature called “Swipe and Share,” which lets users wirelessly “throw” pictures from their phone to a TV or cloud service, or stream movies from their phone to a TV.
The Eluga also sports a 1 GHz dual-core processor (OMAP4430), and runs on Android Gingerbread 2.3.5, with an upgrade to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the way for summer 2012.
According to Matsumura, the Eluga will hit the European market this April.
Meanwhile, an affordable new NFC phone is also being prepped for April release in Malaysia.
Developed and manufactured in Malaysia by local company DMD Mobile Sdn Bhd, the unnamed Android smart phone will feature 3G, built-in NFC, and a 650 Mhz processor – all for less than $165, with a data plans as low as $3/month.
According to Executive Chairman Dr. Mohammed Daud, the handset will be revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Feb 28 ahead of a market launch in April.
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