CES 2012: Polaroid unveils Android-based 16MP camera, the SC1630

Is it a phone? Is it a camera? Well it’s both but more of a camera with phone like functionality. It seems Polaroid wants a tiny piece of the Android pie as well with this concept camera, the SC1630. From the front and sides, it’s no different from any of the point-and-shoot cameras in the market. It packs in a 16MP sensor, with 3x optical zoom on a 36-108mm lens. Flip it over though, and it’s an Android phone, complete with shortcut buttons, earpiece and everything.

Now it's a camera! (Image Source)

It’s not the best looking phone or camera for that matter; we’ll give you that but is a unique concept that could appeal to a niche crowd. Samsung had dabbled with this concept many years back with the M8800 Pixon, remember that? Even before that we had the Nokia N93 which till date, remains one of the very few phones to actually have a proper 3x optical zoom.

Now it's a phone! (Image Source)

Coming back to the Polaroid, the phone does not appear to support 3G but it will do EDGE as you can see in the image. Video recording also seems to be limited to just 720p which is odd given it has a 16MP sensor. There’re no details on the pricing and availability just yet.