Panasonic has a brand new Android Lollipop phone...and it's not for Japan

Panasonic has a new Android smartphone coming, and fittingly enough, the device is decidedly not for its native country of Japan. The Eluga U2 is a mid-ranged, budget friendly phone that still manages to offer some pretty decent hardware. It’s actually the follow-up to last year’s rather low-key Eluga U which was released, among other countries, in India.

The device comes with a 5-inch, 720X1280 IPS display, a Quad-Core Snapdragon 410 (64-Bit) CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage (with MicroSD card support up to 64GB), a 13 megapixel rear/5 megapixel front camera combo, and a 2500 mAh battery. It will ship with Android Lollipop and support LTE, all while retailing for a very affordable $254. Despite the inclusion of Android 5.0, the device is running a customized skin which Panasonic has branded “Fit Home UI” which has a somewhat interesting take on the typical App Drawer. The end result is somewhat of a hybrid between stock Android icons and features and something else entirely. Take a look:

As mentioned, the Eluga U2 isn’t actually listed on Panasonic Japan’s mobile phone portal, which makes perfect sense given the company’s late-arrival to the smartphone game and subsequent bowing out due to a lack of consumer interest and intention to outsource smartphone manufacturing. Clearly the company once known as the Matsushita Electric Company realized that there are potential sales to be had in the Asian market at-large. Of course, we’ve also seen Panasonic show interest in Europe and, more recently, North America — perhaps we could see the same situation with their budget offerings as well?