Polaroid introduces "smart" camera

Polaroid SC1630
The new Polaroid SC1630 camera looks just like a phone

Polaroid has introduced a new "smart" camera, powered by the Android operating system and in the same shape as a mobile phone.

The Polaroid SC1630 features a 16 million pixel camera with a built-in 3x optical zoom, touch screen display and integrated wi-fi, designed for uploading to social networks quickly and easily.

By using Android, the camera merges the optics of a digital camera with the opportunity for extension via apps on the Android platform. Polaroid says that this makes the process of clicking, editing, uploading and tagging to be an instant experience on one device.

The camera is also lightweight, weighing in at less than 150g. Polaroid is claiming that the camera surpasses the ability of "even the most powerful camera phones".

Other features include 18 scene modes and a 3.2 widescreen display. Face and smile detection, along with the ability to automatically organise photos by date, location and people are also included. Geotagging features, such as adding longitude and latitude coordinates to photos are available.

Edits

On board editing features on the SC1630 include cropping, red-eye removal, resizing and colour correction. The camera uses microSD cards, which are available up to 32GB in size.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and optional cellular data, meaning that images can be shared from anywhere in the world. The SC1630 also supports the Google Android market, which has more than 400,000 apps.

The Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera price is not yet known, but it will be available from this year onwards.

Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.