During the week before Mobile World Congress, Panasonic took the wraps off the phone with which it would return to the UK and European mobile market. Named the Eluga, it’s a good-looking, dual-core Android phone, if not anything particularly spectacular.

A rumour then circulated that Panasonic had something a touch more exciting planned for Mobile World Congress, and sure enough, it has given us another device, but it’s not quite what we expected.

The Eluga Power is its name, but despite this it still runs a dual-core processor rather than the quad-core chips favoured by other manufacturers.  That said, it is a Qualcomm 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, so it’s not going to be left behind in the performance stakes.

What makes the Eluga Power standout is the massive 5-inch LCD screen, which pops it neatly into the fashionable — but divisive — tablet/smartphone hybrid category. The screen has a 1280 x 720 HD resolution too, so it should look fantastic, while the chassis of the phone maintains a very slim 9.6mm profile.

Like its little brother, the Eluga Power meets IP57 standards for water and dust proofing, plus there’s an 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, and an NFC chip too.

Unlike the Eluga, the Power will use Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as its operating system.

Other key features include a quick charging system with 50% of the battery being filled after 30 minutes, 8GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and a forward facing video call lens.

Panasonic’s press release says nothing about price or a release date for the Eluga Power, but a spring showing doesn’t seem out of the question, as this is around the same time as we expect the standard Eluga.