Polaroid enters the smartphone market

At Mobile World Congress, Polaroid surprised with a new line of smartphones for both Windows Phone and Android.

Jason Parker Senior Editor / Reviews - Software

Jason Parker has been at CNET for nearly 15 years. He is the senior editor in charge of iOS software and has become an expert reviewer of the software that runs on each new Apple device. He now spends most of his time covering Apple iOS releases and third-party apps.

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Jason Parker

March 1, 2015 2:13 p.m. PT

3 min read

In an announcement at Mobile World Congress 2015, Polaroid is entering the European smartphone market with a line of devices that will run both Android and Windows Phone OS.

Exclusive to Europe, the collection features the first Polaroid Windows smartphone as well as Android models featuring the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.

At this time Polaroid has not given these devices specific names. All of the phones in the line will be either 3G- or 4G-capable and feature quad-core or octa-core processors.

Smartphone specs

We do know that the Android versions will run Android 4.4 Kitkat and will include a 5.5-inch 4G LTE quad-core smartphone, a 5-inch 3G octa-core smartphone, a 5-inch 3G quad-core smartphone and a 5-inch 4G LTE quad-core smartphone.

The phones will have both front- and rear-facing cameras and will sport a slim design that comes in several different colors.

Polaroid says the models in the collection are available in a variety of different colors with prices ranging from 89€-199€.

This is the 5-inch 3G octa-core Android smartphone. Polaroid, Inc.

Here are the specs for each model:

5-inch 3G quad-core Android smartphone

H+/3G+/3G WCDMA
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Screen: 5-inch IPS OGS
Operating system: Android 4.4 (KitKat)
Processor: Quad-core 1.3GHz
SIM card: Dual SIM
Back camera: 5 megapixels
Front camera: VGA
Flash storage: 4GB
RAM: 512 MB
Expandable storage: with microSD card (up to 32 GB)
Price: 89€-99€

5-inch 3G octa-core Android smartphone

H+/3G+/3G WCDMA
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Screen: 5-inch HD IPS
Operating system: Android 4.4 (KitKat)
Processor: Octa-core 1.4GHz
SIM card: Dual SIM
Back camera: 5 megapixels
Front camera: 2 megapixels
Flash storage: 8GB
RAM: 1GB
Expandable storage: with microSD card (up to 32 GB)
Price: 149€-159€

5-inch 4G LTE quad-core Android smartphone

4G LTE H+/3G+/3G WCDMA
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Screen: 5-inch IPS OGS
Operating system: Android 4.4 (KitKat)
Processor: Quad-core 1.3GHz
SIM card: Single SIM
Back camera: 5 megapixels
Front camera: VGA
Flash storage: 4GB
RAM: 512 MB
Expandable storage: with microSD card (up to 32 GB)
Price: 99€-119€

5.5-inch 4G LTE quad-core Android smartphone

4G LTE H+/3G+/3G WCDMA
GSM/GPRS/EDGE/
Screen: 5-inch HD IPS
Operating system: Android 4.4 (KitKat)
Processor: Quad-core 1.3GHz
SIM card: Single SIM
Back camera: 8 megapixels
Front camera: 2 megapixels
Flash storage: 8GB
RAM: 1GB
Expandable storage: with microSD card (up to 32 GB)
Price: 189€-199€

5-inch 3G quad-core Windows smartphone

Netz : H+/3G+/3G WCDMA
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Screen: 5-inch HD IPS
Operating system: Windows 8.1
Processor: Quad-core, 1.2GHz
SIM card: Dual SIM
Back camera: 8 megapixels
Front camera: 2 megapixels
Flash storage: 8GB
RAM: 1GB
Expandable storage: with microSD card (up to 32 GB)
Price: 149€

First impressions

Polaroid is entering a crowded smartphone market with Apple and Samsung leading the pack, and amid several other new smartphone launches coming from Huawei, HTC and other manufacturers at this years Mobile World Congress. It's too soon to say if Polaroid can compete in this space, but with octa-core and quad-core versions available, it seems the company is coming out of the gate with comparable hardware.

We'll update this First Take with more information as it becomes available.