Kodak is a well-known US-based camera manufacturer. Kodak is not exactly the first company that comes to mind when smartphones are concerned, but this company did release an Android-powered handset back in January. Kodak has announced the MI5 smartphone during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, but the device wasn’t exactly available for purchase until now. Some reports were saying that the phone will reach the UK back in March / April, but that never happened. Well, the Kodak IM5 is now available for purchase in Netherlands. The phone is available for €280 free of contract, though various contract options are also available from three Netherlands-based carriers. Anyhow, let’s see what this handset has to offer in terms of specs, shall we.
The Kodak IM5 sports a 5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) IPS display, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card up to 32GB). MediaTek’s MT6592 octa-core processor running at 1.7GHz is fueling this handset, and a 2,100mAh battery is also a part of this package. The 13-megapixel OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) snapper is located on the back of this handset, and a 5-megapixel shooter is available up front. Unfortunately, the Kodak IM5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat at the moment, but Kodak has promised that it will be upgraded to Android Lollipop. This handset was supposed to see the light of day back in Q1 this year, so it’s somewhat late to the game, but better late than ever.
That being said, the Kodak IM5 will ship with Kodak’s custom skin on top of Android 4.4 KitKat. The UI seems really simple to use actually, and you can see parts of it in the gallery down below. The phone also sports 3 capacitive buttons below the display (menu, home and back, respectively), and the general design is alright, though nothing ground-breaking. Either way, the Kodak IM5 is a solid mid-range smartphone, but it will have a lot of competition at that price range. There are many similarly-specced phones available which cost less than the Kodak IM5, but it will be interesting to see if this company can actually leave their mark in the smartphone world. In the meantime, check out our hands-on coverage from CES 2015.
