Panasonic is gearing up to reenter the phone market in style and its first crack at a high-end Android smartphone looks rather impressive.

Mind you, the Android market is already overcrowded and Panasonic will face an uphill struggle to gain a foothold, or toehold for that matter. However, its nameless prototype seems to tick all the right boxes.



It features a 4.3-inch 960x540 OLED screen with a surprisingly tiny bezel, which means the phone is rather compact. Panasonic describes the design as a “D-form factor” and we must say we are impressed. The minimalistic design looks rather compact and the clever form factor, with gently sloping edges, sets it apart from the rest of the Android crowd. Fudo thinks it looks like the lovechild of an old iPod nano and Zune HD, but this is not a bad thing. Panasonic also claims the phone is waterproof and dustproof, so it probably feels pretty rugged as well.

There is no word on the specs or price. However, the phone features NFC so we reckon it runs Android 4.0. Panasonic hopes to sell just 1.5 million units next year, and if the price is right we can see quite a few takers. The only major concern is how Panasonic will implement Android 4.0, or more precisely whether it will mess up the UI.