The upcoming Kodak Ektra smartphone has the makings of a good point-and-shoot camera, and has a heavy dose of nostalgia to go with it.
The Kodak name has been synonymous with photography and film production, just as Nokia is to smartphones. The company has been through highs and lows, even hitting rock bottom in the past. But it is finally recovering and on this road to recovery, Kodak is trying new things. Last year, we saw Kodak launching HDTVs in India and now we have the Kodak Ektra, which is a smartphone aimed at the camera enthusiast. Kodak is harnessing its camera know how, trying to condense all of it into a smartphone. I had the chance to look and feel the device before its launch here are my thoughts on it.
UK-based company Bullitt makes smartphones for the “underserved” segments, including the CAT S60 that we reviewed recently. The Kodak Ektra also falls under Bullitt’s banner, and from the little time I spent with it, it seems like this phone is essentially a good point and shoot camera, that also functions as a smartphone.
As I mentioned earlier, the phone is aimed at camera enthusiasts. There is a 21MP camera at the back with f/2.0 aperture, and the Sony IMX230 sensor. This is the same sensor we encountered on the Honor 7, which was amongst the best camera phones of its time. The company has tried to make the camera interface resemble that of a digital camera. You get a mode dial at the bottom right, while there’s a an indicator (for what settings you’re currently using) on top, and another gear icon on the left, for additional camera settings.
There are some interesting software changes made to accommodate Kodak’s hardware choices. For example, you can’t use the three navigation keys while in the camera app. It’s a strange choice, but has been done deliberately so users can use the physical shutter key with a single hand without accidentally pressing any of the three navigation keys. The company says it has taken user feedback to add smaller changes to the camera interface on later stages of development.
There are various shooting modes, custom filters imitating old Kodak film rolls and more, which Kodak fans may enjoy and reminisce about. Same goes with the phone’s design. For people who don’t know, the Ektra uses the same name as Kodak’s 1941 film camera. The phone tries to follow industrial design language to some extent, but misses out on premium materials. It has a plastic body with faux leather and metal finish. The company tells us that this has been done to save costs, but then if you are making a niche product, why not go all out?
The design is also a big part of the whole Kodak package, which resonates with the company’s heritage and is reminiscent the old Ektra camera. The slightly thicker camera grip and the thick steel rimmed camera lens do make the phone a conversation starter and it looks different. Whether you like the design or not, the Ektra serves its purpose, being Kodak’s heritage insignia, appealing to the camera enthusiast.
Moving on, we have the smartphone side of things. The Kodak Ektra is powered by a MediaTek Helio X20 SoC, 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. I tried the smartphone for a little while and it worked quite well, slowing down only a little when capturing Bokeh. It has a 5-inch IPS display up front, which looked good, but had somewhat thicker black bezels than most phones. The top and bottom portions are rather large, which may hamper ergonomics for users with smaller hands. You get a pretty stock Android 6.0 interface and the company says it’s aware that the software is old and is making efforts to update it to Nougat.
In addition, the company also has special cases and accessories for the phone, made of genuine leather that look quite good.
The Kodak Ektra is a tad confusing as a smartphone, but that’s how lifestyle products go. They don’t have a clear purpose apart from being something you would buy out of pure passion for the product or the company making it. In the Ektra’s case, it has the makings of a good point and shoot camera with an Android smartphone affixed to it. Although, whether the Kodak badge is enough to make you want to buy it is totally up to you.
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Hardik Singh
Light at the top, this odd looking creature lives under the heavy medication of video games. View Full Profile
