Panasonic has been talking about bringing a smartphone to Europe for quite a while. Announced on Monday at the Panasonic Convention 2012 in Hamburg, the Panasonic Eluga is that phone. Pocket-lint has had some time to play with the new handset and from what we have seen, it looks pretty impressive.

The 4.3-inch 960 x 540-pixel resolution OLED display is a particular highlight. It has impressive enough viewing angles, the touch response is good and the skin that Panasonic has put on Android is simple but very smart to look at.

The real treat though is the way the phone feels. At 103g it is lighter than a Galaxy S II and is incredibly thin, at 7.8mm. The design looks great and the matte black back gives the phone a very sturdy feel. All in all a very swish looking piece of kit and easily one of the most premium Android handsets we are to play with so far.

Despite the minimal design, Panasonic has managed to pack IP57 waterproofing and dustproof technology into the handset. We were shown calls being made from the phone underwater earlier on without any worrying looking signs appearing on the Eluga's screen. 

Inside is a dual-core 1GHz OMAP 4430 processor which kept the handset ticking along quickly but things weren't quite the speed levels of say the Galaxy S II or Motorola RAZR.

The phone we were given to play with was running Android 2.3.5 and not Ice Cream Sandwich irritatingly, although Panasonic tells us ICS will be coming in Summer.

The phone has an 8-megapixel camera on the back, complete with 1080p video recording. We did snap a few stills and they definitely seemed decent enough.

Still images from the phone, along with video and websites can be pushed to Panasonic Viera TVs using the Viera Smart 2.0 application. Dragging media to the top of the screen will push it to a nearby television using what a presume is DLNA. The application is also due to come to iOS, allowing those with Apple devices to also take advantage of the media sharing technology.

Like the look of the new Eluga? Let us know in the comments below...