Kodak has just shared U.S. launch details as well as a camera gallery for their upcoming Ektra smartphone, a device which initially launched in Europe back on December 9th of 2016. The phone which is heavily focused on providing a camera first experience to consumers, will come to the U.S. market with availability for purchase later this year. Although they have not yet mentioned an exact launch date for the phone in the U.S. they have mentioned that it will go up for pre-order in April at a price of $549, and it will be available for pre-order at the same time in Canada although there was no price given for the Canadian availability.
As of right now Kodak is only listing their own website as a means of purchasing this, so there’s no word on if other retailers will pick it up, although there is always a possibility that Kodak could be waiting to share details of alternative methods for purchase of the Ektra once it gets closer to the pre-order and launch time frames. That being said, those who have been keeping an eye on this device as a potential new phone won’t have to wait but a few more months to place their orders.
The Kodak Ektra is running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow so it’s mostly up to date when it comes to the software, although it’s likely that for many, the real bread and butter here will be the multitude of camera software features that are integrated into the device to allow users a more varied photography experience. On the hardware side of things the Ektra comes with a 21-megapixel main camera on the back with fast focus phase detection auto focus and Dual LED Flash, while the secondary camera on the front is a 13-megapixel sensor with phase detection auto focus. On the software side of things, Kodak has integrated a handful of features that you won’t commonly find in other smartphone cameras, such as the Super 8 app for video recording in a Super film style, as well as a plethora of other features like Panorama, Smart Auto, Sports, Bokeh, and Macro shooting modes. If you’re interested in checking out what some of the pictures look like, Kodak was kind enough to provide quite a few shots from the Ektra below.
