The latest entrant into the smartphone realm is none other than Kodak, though what it has unveiled today is less of a camera running Android, and more of an actual smartphone. It looks like one and has smartphone specs, so it’s definitely (just) a smartphone.
The Kodak IM5 comes with midrange innards mostly, except for the camera which features “unique image management software”. More on that in a bit.
The handset has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear snapper with LED flash, a 5 MP front camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, and microSD card support.
Running the show is an unnamed 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, though the clock speed makes us think it’s part of a MediaTek chipset (probably the MT6592). The Kodak IM5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, and it will be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop, even if a clear timeline for that hasn’t been given (or a reason for it not launching with the latest software in the first place).
Expect the IM5 to become available in Europe towards the end of March, followed by a global rollout later on. It will cost €229, and when it eventually lands in the US you’ll be able to pick one up for $249 (sans contract of course).
Camera-wise, you’ll get an app that will let you quickly edit photos, share them on social media, or directly print them, since it’s apparently going to be “compatible with home printers”.
This is clearly just an attempt to capitalize on a very well known brand, since the hardware is nothing spectacular. Whether enough people will fall for that remains to be seen.
