For anyone who’s ever leaned over a toilet or a glass of water and heard the unmistakeable “kerplunk!” of your hard-earned money disappearing into a watery grave, you should be relieved to hear that new waterproof smartphones are on the way.
USA Today reports from the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the Panasonic Eluga and Eluga Power were on display. Running on Android, the Elugas look to be nice and thin, not some plunky piece of deep-diving plastic.

And while you can’t go swimming or take a nice long bath with the phones, they will survive a quick dip. Panasonic says they’re protected up to about a depth of 1 meter or 30 minutes in water. You won’t even have to pull out the bag of instant rice trick later to try to suck any remaining moisture from your phone. Imagine that!

The Eluga will hit European markets first at around 399 and 339 euros ($536-$603 U.S.), while North Americans and the Chinese markets will have to wait a bit longer.

It might be worth it, just to be free of that “I wasted $100/$300/whatever amount in one moment I’ll never get back” feeling.

Panasonic introduces waterproof smartphones [USA Today]

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