Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera

Polaroid SC1630 Android HD acute camera hands-on, is it a cameraphone or a phonecamera?

The camera modules in smartphones always improve, and these canicule there are phones like the iPhone 4S and the Nokia N9 who can booty snapshots as acceptable -- and sometimes bigger -- than point-and-shoots. Polaroid's accepted for authoritative cameras, but its newest device, a rebrand of the Aigo A8 we saw at CES aftermost year, flips the calligraphy by demography a 16 megapixel point-and-shoot and advance an Android buzz inside.

The Polaroid version's alleged the SC1630 Android HD Acute Camera, and it's arranged with 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA and 850/900/1800/1900 GSM radios, forth with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and an FM antenna befuddled in for acceptable measure. The SC1630 sports an 800 x 400 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, while beneath there's 512MB of congenital accumulator and 512MB of RAM, forth with adjacency and G-sensors, micro SIM slot, Micro USB and a 2.5mm headphone jack. As we said above, the camera is a 16 megapixel unit, with breach of F3.1 - F5.6, 3X optical zoom and 5X agenda zoom, a max bang acceleration of 1/1400 and ISO acme out at 3200. It's got geotagging and anti-shake abutment as well, and can shoot videos in 720p. Scheduled to access in April for $299, the accessory still has a few kinks to be formed out and there may be some changes to that accouterments afore it makes it to market. Actuality at CES 2012, we got a adventitious to lay calmly on the buzz and allege with Emanuel Verona, Polaroid's Executive VP and COO about the company's aboriginal Android offering, so apprehend on accomplished the breach for our impressions and his thoughts.

When we aboriginal best up the buzz (camera?), we begin it to be a bit chunkier than your boilerplate smartphone at 18.5mm blubbery (price you pay for 3X optical zoom), but it's still calmly pocketable. The fit and accomplishment on the attic assemblage we captivated wasn't the best we've apparent -- the advanced panel, fabricated of a textured, but cheap-feeling adamantine plastic, didn't fit securely, and the four capacitive Android buttons on the advanced didn't feel as solid as we'd like back pressed.

Of course, audience units booty a lot of corruption on the exhibit floor, so it's adamantine to acquaint how abounding of our niggles will abide in retail units. We begin the spun metal camera button on the ancillary to be a nice touch, but the aggregate rocker, red bang button and zoom ascendancy were fabricated of artificial and not about as comfortable in appearance. The SC1630's awning won't wow pixel body enthusiasts, but examination angles were acceptable and blush reproduction is good.

Like we said, we got to allege with Polaroid's COO, Emanuel Vorona about the SC1630, and he addressed some of our apropos with the accessory we saw actuality at CES. Our above affair was apropos array activity -- appropriate now there's a 1020 mAh corpuscle inside, which is baby for any smartphone, and its abridgement of ability is an alike bigger botheration back it's got to advance that optical zoom. Vorona assured us that he's able-bodied acquainted of the accent of array life, and said that it's a antecedence to ensure that the phonecamera can accomplish it through an absolute assignment day beneath accustomed use after accepting to bung it in.

We additionally asked him about carrier support, and he told us that the aggregation is in talks with assorted carriers and is because alms the buzz both on arrangement and as a prepaid handset. Because the affair can booty massive photos and administration such images is a prime affairs point, we additionally inquired about the achievability of an LTE version. Once again, Vorona said it's an affair he's acquainted of, and is actively pursing the achievability of abacus an LTE radio. In the meantime, the SC1630 utilizes Polaroid proprietary compression technology and allows users to accept the admeasurement of the photos they demand so administration pics won't run up massive abstracts charges. We charge say, this new Polaroid accessory has our concern affronted and we're attractive advanced to seeing the final adaptation and putting it throught its paces in a review.

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