Kodak Ektra Review - Review 2022

Information technology'south a hassle to deport around a separate camera when you're traveling. Yous don't desire to burden yourself with too many devices in your pockets or besides many things you lot demand to go on charged. But at that place are often moments when the camera on your telephone merely won't cutting information technology. That'southward where the Kodak Ektra comes in. It's an unlocked phone built in the style of a point-and-shoot camera, packing a large image sensor (for a telephone) in a lightweight trunk. You get solid image quality, the ability to shoot in RAW, and fairly smooth overall functioning for an affordable $399.99. That said, it's not every bit powerful as many comparably priced phones, bombardment life is lackluster, and the software is dated, and then if you're not keen on the camera capabilities, y'all're better off with a different phone.

Blueprint and Display

The Kodak Ektra ($299.99 at Amazon) stands out. It features a big protruding lens on the back, a hard black leather finish, and a thick band of metal along the sides. Combined with the shutter push and a rather distinctive rounded bottom, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Ektra is i of those Android-powered signal-and-shoot cameras similar the Samsung Milky way Camera 2 or the NX.

In reality, the Ektra has more in common with the outdated Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1. The 2 phones both characteristic similar grade factors with large camera lenses, but the Ektra distinguishes itself by minimizing the majority. It measures but 5.8 by 2.9 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs a lightweight v.8 ounces. Compared with the hefty Lumix (5.3 by ii.vii by 0.8 inches, 7.ii ounces), the Ektra is easier to slip in and out of your pocket. Of course, top camera phones like the Milky way S8 (5.9 by 2.vii by 0.iii inches, v.5 ounces) and LG G6 (5.9 by 2.8 by 0.three inches, 5.eight ounces) have tall and narrow bodies making them even easier to handle, while the Ektra has a rather large bezel.

Forth the sides, the Ektra features most of the standard ports and buttons you'd expect on a telephone. On the correct y'all take a pair of clicky metal volume buttons, a larger ability push button, a Camera Shutter cardinal, and an attachment point for the included conveying strap. The top of the phone has a 3.5mm audio jack, and the bottom has a USB-C port y'all can utilise for charging or transferring pictures to your laptop. The left side also gives you access to a SIM/microSD card slot that worked fine with a 256GB card. The ane missing characteristic here is a fingerprint sensor, which is a disappointment because even more affordable phones like the Moto E4 have them.

Front and centre is a 5-inch, 1,920-past-1,080 IPS display with faintly backlit capacitive buttons beneath. The resolution works out to a crisp 445 pixels per inch (ppi), bettering the brandish you'll find on the similarly priced Moto G5 Plus (401ppi). But compared with the Milky way S8'due south Quad Hard disk drive display (570ppi), the Ektra isn't as abrupt. That'southward non really significant though, since the pixel density is high enough that text and graphics appear crisp, and viewing angles are adept. What is problematic is that the Ektra doesn't get very bright, specially compared with the S8. That makes it troublesome to use outdoors and in direct sunlight, which isn't ideal if you're using the display as a viewfinder on a sunny day.

Network Operation and Connectivity

The Ektra is available unlocked and supports LTE bands 2/4/5/7/12/17, for compatibility with AT&T and T-Mobile. Information technology recorded a high download speed of xviii.9Mbps during our network testing in midtown Manhattan, which is in line with other phones we've tested in the aforementioned area recently. The phone besides supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and Bluetooth 4.one, simply not NFC and so you won't be able to utilize Android Pay. That'south a flake disappointing considering you practice get NFC on comparably priced phones similar the ZTE Axon vii.

Telephone call quality is mixed. Transmissions are faint and can sometimes exist inaudible if you lot're trying to carry on a conversation in an expanse with lots of background noise. Earpiece volume as well leaves something to exist desired. Only transmission quality itself is expert—voices are clear and natural, and racket cancellation blots out nearly all groundwork noise from nearby traffic. The speaker on the back is tinny at higher volumes.

Processor and Bombardment

The Ektra is powered by a MediaTek MT6797 Helio X20 processor clocked at 2.3GHz. Information technology's a solid midrange chipset when it comes to benchmarks, scoring 84,045 on AnTuTu, which measures overall system operation. That's not as high as the Snapdragon 820-powered Axon 7 (141,989), but information technology'south meliorate than the Snapdragon 625-powered G5 Plus (63,845).

In terms of real-globe performance, the Ektra is mostly smooth. Its 3GB of RAM is enough that you shouldn't accept any trouble multitasking, and we rarely encountered any sluggishness. At that place were some instances when the phone felt a flake slow when switching between apps, simply that appears to be due to the unresponsive capacitive buttons that don't seem to register touches very well. Animations likewise experience a little slower than normal, but these are things yous can speed upward using a third-party launcher. The Ektra can play enervating games similar GTA: San Andreas, but you'll run into some glitches like flickering textures and dropped frames.

Encounter How We Test Cell Phones

Battery life isn't the best. The Ektra clocked four hours, 30 minutes in our rundown exam in which we stream full-screen video over LTE at maximum screen effulgence. That's much lower than the Axon 7 (vi hours), and even less than the G5 Plus (7 hours, 35 minutes). It's not impressive given the 3,000mAh battery and relatively dim screen. The phone supports fast charging with the included adapter (5V/2A), simply it won't charge as fast as Qualcomm's Quick Charge iii.0-enabled phones.

Camera

Don't mix upwards the Kodak Ektra with the Kodak Ektar. One is a phone. The other is an absolutely fantastic ISO 100 color negative film stock. Merely fifty-fifty though the Ektra isn't Ektar, it notwithstanding puts some accent on its camera. It packs more pixels, 21MP, and a larger epitome sensor than most smartphones. The 1/two.3-inch sensor is the same size you get in a indicate-and-shoot, about 1.6 times the size the sensor found in an iPhone 7.

The camera you become with an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy is really good, bettering low-end point-and-shoots in pretty much every category except optical zoom. The Ektra doesn't offer the extremely fast burst capture options that iPhone owners have enjoyed since the 6s generation, merely it does evangelize solid epitome quality, minus the bells and whistles.

Yous get a wide-angle lens, covering a 26.5mm field of view with a fixed f/2 aperture. Information technology's stabilized optically, which steadies images and video. We used Imatest to check the quality of the lens and were happy to run into that it's quite precipitous. It scores 2,531 lines per moving picture peak on a center-weighted test, with stiff performance right up to the edges of the frame. The extra sensor resolution certainly gives it a boost; the iPhone 7 squeezes ii,055 lines out of a 12MP sensor paired with a 28mm f/1.viii lens.

Image noise is a large concern for smartphone cameras. Sensors are small and components are packed tightly together, resulting in a device that can go warm. The Ektra does a pretty solid job controlling racket, curbing it to less than one.five percent through ISO 6400 and avoiding the greenish color shift we've seen with some other camera-centric phones at high ISOs.

Clean images at ISO 6400 from a small-scale sensor don't come without some caveats. The Ektra applies noise reduction to its JPG output. Even as low every bit ISO 400 nosotros run into the finest lines in our test scene blend together, although yous do come across more detail than yous get from an ISO 400 iPhone 7 or Milky way S7 JPG.

Quality simply takes a slight step back at ISO 800, and while blur and artifacts are visible at ISO 1600, we wouldn't phone call the results blurry. Blurry, yet, is the word we'd use to draw ISO 3200 and 6400 output—both settings are too much to ask of whatever smartphone, with the exception of the long-discontinued Panasonic CM1, a model with an even larger 1-inch sensor that never gained traction in the market, despite delivering superlative image quality.

Raw capture is likewise an selection; you'll need to change the shooting mode to Manual to access it, but you can yet leave all exposure settings set to automatic if desired. When shooting Raw y'all go more detail at higher ISOs, merely images tin can announced rather grainy. We'd yet recommend trying to continue the ISO at 1600 or less when shooting Raw, but if you practise need to work at a higher sensitivity you'll see more than detail in images.

There is one big downside—each Raw DNG takes up 43MB of storage space. That's only about 10MB less than Raw images from the full-frame, 50MP Canon EOS 5DS R SLR. Our guess is that the Ektra is using an uncompressed DNG format in gild to speed image processing time. Regardless of the technical reason, if y'all programme on shooting in Raw, y'all'll want to invest in a big memory carte du jour.

Focus speed can be an issue with smartphone cameras. Slow focus limits the functionality of the Hasselblad True Zoom addition for Moto phones—it requires most 0.seven-second to lock focus and take a picture. If you use the Ektra's physical shutter push button yous'll experience a similar, unacceptable lag—0.seven-second. But if you lot tap the shutter icon on the screen the camera responds much more apace, recording a more typical 0.1-second lag. Brand sure to tap the screen when shooting those candid moments. We'd beloved to see the shutter lag outcome with the physical shutter push fixed, of course.

In the lab, we were leveraging manual mode to capture our standard array of test images. We ran into some bugs with the app here. With shutter speed set up to automatic and ISO set manually, nosotros ended upwardly with some images that were mode off in exposure. Nosotros didn't feel this when leaving the ISO ready to automatic, which is how most folks will use the camera, but it's worth noting.

Lab tests are one thing. Real-world use is another. We took the Ektra out and about to snap some shots and work with a few of its shooting modes. In Raw, we found the images to be quite easy to work with using Adobe Lightroom CC on a desktop. Shadow and highlight recovery is effective when shooting at lower ISOs, but a scene we shot at ISO 1000 didn't requite any room to pull out particular from darker areas of the frame without introducing a ton of extra noise—that's not a surprise given the small image sensor.

If you shoot JPG, you'll discover that colors are on the muted side. Take a look at the two shots above; the showtime is an out-of-camera JPG, and the second is the same epitome with some basic Raw processing. It was shot on a bright, sunny midsummer afternoon, and while the color of the water might be a fleck truer in the JPG, the foliage and sky are apartment. You don't take to shoot in Raw to tune colors, of course; Snapseed is preinstalled, and you tin always download VSCO or the epitome editor of your pick to melody the output. Information technology's a shame the app doesn't permit you adapt the JPG settings, as that could go a long mode to save you some editing work.

Despite having just one lens, the Ektra has a bokeh simulation way. When you lot enable it the phone prompts yous to remind that it works all-time with the lens within a foot of your subject, and to ensure that it stands out from the background. This ways that y'all won't be using information technology much for portraits—sticking a photographic camera in someone'southward face is not going to draw them in a flattering fashion—but it does have some potential for macro work. The epitome to a higher place was shot with the bokeh mode enabled, and is a JPG right out of photographic camera (the colors are pretty solid here, and we were in a shady spot). The processed Raw image, without the bokeh setting enabled, is beneath.

The Ektra also shoots video at up to 4K quality, with optical paradigm stabilization. Stabilization is much more important for video than it is for stills when shooting at a wide bending. Handheld video is by and large costless of jitters, but the 4K footage is not good. Texture is absent, even when shooting in bright low-cal, and item is anything but crisp. It looks similar poorly upscaled 1080p video rather than true 4K.

There's also an sectional, filter-centric app for video. Super8 shift colors, adds a rounded frame, and adds some grain and scratches to give your video the await associated with onetime 8mm film. We like the event—particularly the black-and-white Tri-X option—but be aware that there is some processing fourth dimension required, about 2 minutes for the 12-second prune below. You're express to 1080p capture when using the Super8 app, and the filter effects hibernate some of the faults that are apparent in the primary photographic camera app'south 4K output.

Finally, in that location'southward a thirteen-megapixel front end-facing camera. It doesn't have much in the manner of features compared with the rear sensor. You have a few selfie modes and you lot can record video in 480p, which isn't very sharp. Photos outdoors and in proficient lighting come out fine, though a fiddling soft. Indoors and nether lower light you lot'll encounter issues with focus and muddiness.

Software

The Kodak Ektra comes running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It's a much older version of Android than you lot'll notice on the G5 Plus, which runs Android 7.i.i Nougat, and it doesn't bode well for the Ektra getting future updates. On the plus side, the software touch is calorie-free. Well-nigh visual elements are close to stock Android and there are no unnecessary features tacked on.

Bloatware is also minimal. Bated from AVG Antivirus and Role Suite which you can uninstall, you'll just notice a handful of Kodak apps like Print and Gallery that let you salvage and share scans or photos, and the aforementioned Snapseed and Super8. Out of 32GB of total storage, you accept xx.51GB to use. It'southward a decent amount of space, but if you program to shoot in Raw or take lots of 4K video, you'll desire to employ a microSD card.

Conclusions

The Kodak Ektra is a $400 Android phone that doubles as a point-and-shoot camera, sparing yous the hassle of carrying around 2 devices. It takes solid pictures and offers a reasonable level of performance for the toll. That said, it'southward non necessarily the best camera phone y'all can get. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is pricey, but it remains the best shooter among smartphones, and has a gorgeous design, faster performance, and a sharper brandish. If you're looking for something in the same price range, both the Moto G5 Plus and ZTE Axon 7 give y'all updated software, excellent hardware, better battery life, and a slew of unique features. But the Kodak Ektra is still worth considering for travelers who want something with a little more dial than a phone photographic camera, but don't want to splurge on a point-and-shoot.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/camera/16626/kodak-ektra-review

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