Kodak’s First Smartphone, Very Mid-Range


KodakIm5Smartphone031915When it comes to designing its first smartphone, what would you expect from a camera company? If you said, “a so-so smartphone with a good camera”, then you're guess is correct. But we've got to give it to Kodak, which, after inventing the digital camera, suffered terrible losses due to the influx of digital camera competition that immediately fled the market. The company went bankrupt. Poor guys. Three years later, Kodak has released its own smartphone, the IM5. Would we call this 'everything coming full circle'?

KodakIm5Smartphone031915-1The Kodak company has no experience manufacturing smartphones, so it reached out to its buddies over at the Bullitt Group, a small British company that is known for making rugged CAT-branded smartphones. The 5-inch HD (1280 x 720p) Android smartphone looks pretty much like every other smartphone out there. Quartz gives it a pretty harsh description, saying the nine large icons on the screen and minimal set of options make it look like something advertised in The Oldie. It's innards are mid-range, featuring an unnamed octa-core 1.7GHz processor, just 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of on-board storage (with up to 32GB expansion via microSD).

KodakIm5Smartphone031915-2It might be suited for old folk, but its camera shines (kinda), with a 13-megapixel auto-focus rear camera, and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with a unique image management software for quick editing, sharing, and printing from the device. Although everything is pretty sub-par, it's true that some smartphone users out there don't necessarily care about bells and whistles anymore. The small niche of rugged smartphones is about 10 million units, and according to Bullitt, there is money to be made there. Speaking of price, the IM5 runs for $249, and is available in Europe this month, with expectant arrival in the US soon.

Topics: Technology News Smartphones & Mobile Devices

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