Panasonic Eluga release date is March for Japan, April for Europe

The Panasonic Eluga release date is now official - the Android handset is coming to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo on March 29th, and April will be the date when it gets released in Europe. The Eluga is a mixture between a typical Japanese device in its water and dust-resistant body, but it deviates from the overly colourful aesthetics and instead counts on streamlined elegant looks.

The Panasonic Eluga features a 4.3-inch 540x960-pixel (qHD) display and has an extremely slim, 0.31-inch (7.8mm) body. It's also pretty lightweight at just 3.63 ounces (103 grams). The handset will initially launch with Android Gingerbread on board, but will later get an update to Ice Cream Sandwich. Panasonic promises that the update will arrive by this summer.

Except for the neat design and water/dust resistance, the Panasonic Eluga doesn't differ much from your typical Android handset. It's got a dual-core processor with each of the cores clocked at 1GHz and there'a an 8-megapixel camera on the back. We got the chance to hold it and give you a quick hands-on tour of the Eluga back at MWC 2012, so make sure to look at it to freshen up your minds about what the device looks like.

source: NTT DoCoMo via TheVerge