Panasonic shows Samsung how to make an Android cameraphone
Cameraphones are a small, but growing, part of the smartphone market. I’m not talking about simply a phone with a camera on it. No, these are cameras with a phone inside. Samsung was one of the first Android OEMs to do it with their Galaxy Camera line. The problem with those devices is they are bulky and not that great at being a camera. Panasonic is trying to do both of those things better with their new Lumix CM1.
Panasonic doesn’t make smartphones anymore, but the Lumix CM1 is much more a camera first. It has a 1-inch sensor like you would find on a full-blown camera. It has 20MP resolution, a f/2.8 Leica lens, mechanical shutter, manual control ring, oh, and Android 4.4 KitKat. The phone side of things is powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon processor, and it has a nice 4.7-inch 1080p dispaly, 2GB of RAM, 16GB built-in storage, microSD card slot, and it’s not ridiculously thick.
The Lumix CM1 is 21mm thick, which is actually thicker than the Galaxy Camera 2. The Lumix is boxier, which makes it look thinner and less like a camera. Panasonic says it will go on sale in France and Germany this November at a price of around 900 euros. If all goes well in those countries we could see it here in North America. We love the look of this cameraphone. Would you be interested in buying this device?
[via The Verge]