CESpotlight 2015: Kodak

Kodak hasn’t really been in anyone’s radars in a while. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012, then came back with a ‘different vision’ in 2013, and most recently released a somewhat lackluster smartphone lens attachment in 2014. So it comes as a great surprise that the company showed up at CES 2015 and revealed something unexpected – the Kodak IM5, a photography-centric smartphone. It was Kodak’s only reveal at the show but it’s good to see Kodak still trying to stay relevant even beyond its prime.

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So now we have the company’s first ever smartphone, the Kodak IM5. According to Kodak, the new phone is being positioned as an easy to use budget smartphone with a focus on photography. The phone is designed and built in partnership with Bullit, a British company known for making rugged smartphones for companies like CAT. The phone features a pretty simple design that is somewhat akin to an iPhone.

The phone is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera but it’s not just the cameras themselves that Kodak is focusing on but also the software and features that work with the camera. The company previously said that the IM5 will feature “best-in-class image management software and features”. Additionally, the company has said that they want to make sharing and printing photos easier for consumers which is why they’ve developed their own UI for the IM5 along with its own app store simply called “Apps” that feature applications ‘best-suited’ for the IM5 and its user.

The new phone’s other specifications, which are also quite impressive, include a 5-inch display with a screen resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, a 1.7GHz octa-core processor from MediaTek, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. There’s also a microSD slot that can support up to a 32GB card. The IM5 currently comes with Android 4.4 KitKat but Kodak has said that it plans to bring Android 5.0 Lollipop to the device later this year. Additionally, the company also plans to release more devices throughout the year including a 4G LTE handset, a tablet, and a connected camera.

The Kodak IM5 will be available sometime during the first quarter of the year for an SRP of $249/ €229 but it will only be initially available in Europe with a planned global release sometime later this year. While the phone does have its good points on the hardware side, it’s hard to predict how well the device’s software will perform once it’s in the hands of consumers. We’ll have to wait and see if Kodak’s gamble with its photography and sharing-centric device will pay off.