Last year Panasonic announced the Lumix CM1 which is a hybrid of sorts that combines a smartphone and a camera into one, kind of like the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, although if you’re a fan of Panasonic’s cameras and Leica lenses, then this might be of more interest to you. At that time the phone was not announced for the US market, but it looks like things have changed.
Earlier this year Panasonic promised that the Lumix CM1 would arrive stateside and sure enough they have made good on their promise. The company has announced that the device is now available for pre-order and will set customers back $1,000. Granted that this is rather expensive as far as smartphones are concerned, but let’s not forget that this is essentially two devices in one.
As a quick recap for those who forgot, the Lumix CM1 will sport a 1-inch 20.1MP sensor, putting it well and above current smartphones. It will feature a 28mm f/2.8 Leica DC Elmarit lens and will able to record 4K video at 15fps. There will be a 4.7-inch HD interface with a Full HD TFT LCD display and a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset powering the device.
Granted it isn’t the fastest but if you’re after a camera and phone hybrid, we suppose there aren’t many choices to choose from, at least not of this caliber. It will support 4G LTE connectivity and will run on Android 4.4 KitKat with support for RAW image capture. If you’d like to pre-order the device, you can hit up B&H or Adorama for the details.
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