At CEATEC 2010 in Chiba, Japan, Panasonic exhibited the Lumix Phone, amid some significant excitement as they had teased the specs in a release the previous week. While it remains to be seen exactly how good the Lumix Phone is, it's certainly interesting to see a product that at least approaches the model of a camera with a phone rather than a just another phone with a camera.
Despite carrying the Lumix brand, the Lumix Phone is in the end still a phone. But the camera is no slouch boasting a 13 megapixel CMOS sensor and a 27mm wide-angle lens. Glancing at the front face one might be inclined to think that there's an optical zoom on the Lumix Phone, but unfortunately that's not the case.
The phone features a slide-out key/number pad, a 3.3-inch LCD screen with 854x400 resolution, and a micro SDHC slot for storage. It will have Wi-Fi and DLNA support as well. No details on the processor other than the fact that it's been branded with the catchy “Mobile VenusEngine” moniker.
Any enthusiasm generated by Panasonic's teaser release last week was significantly muted by the Lumix Phone's presentation at CEATEC. We'd have liked to have spent some hands-on time with the phone but the demo models were all kept locked away in quiet corner of the Docomo booth under a glass case. Apparently there were some at the Panasonic booth too, though it seems that display was 'no-touch' as well.
For more information, Panasonic has put up a Japanese-language Lumix Phone website, accessible via LumixPhone.jp which then redirects to this product page. According to Asahi, Docomo will be selling the Lumix Phone by March of next year.
