Kodak releases Ektra smartphone

Kodak released its Ektra smartphone on Tuesday. The phone looks like a compact camera and features a 2014 Sony IMX230 sensor with a resolution of 21 megapixels. The device is available for 499 euros.

Kodak has designed the Ektra as a compact camera, with a small grip and a large housing for the lens. However, the f/2.0 lens used in the phone is much smaller than that housing. Furthermore, the camera in the Ektra phone is equipped with optical image stabilization, PDAF and a dual-LED flash. Kodak also supplies its own camera app with a virtual scene selection dial.

The 21-megapixel sensor used is a chip from 2014 that is also found in other smartphones, for example in the Motorola Moto X and the Sony Xperia Z3+, both of which were released in 2015. The sensor has pixels with a size of 1.12 microns, which is small compared to modern smartphones that often have sensors with fewer, but large pixels. Small pixels theoretically cause poor performance in dark lighting conditions.

The phone has a MediaTek Helio X20-soc with ten cores. It also has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage capacity and space for a micro-SD card. The 5″ screen has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and the battery has a 3000mAh capacity. Kodak provides a fast charger with the phone, which works with MediaTek’s Pump-Express technology and uses a USB-C connection. The production of the device is outsourced to the Bullitt Group, the company that also makes the CAT S60 for Caterpillar, for example.

Kodak presented the Ektra in October, but it was not yet known when the device would come on the market. It’s not the ailing company’s first smartphone. In 2015, it announced the IM5 with major interface elements, but that phone has not proved a success. Kodak asks for a suggested retail price of 499 euros for the new Ektra.