Polaroid, the next generation

Socialmatic has confirmed pricing and specifications for its retro meets high-tech hipster camera.

The-digital-camera-that-can-share-snaps-in-the-real-and-in-the-virtual-world-will-launch-in-early-2014-Photo-AFP

Socialmatic has confirmed pricing and specifications for its retro meets high-tech hipster camera.

The Polaroid Socialmatic is the ultimate camera for sharing content. It supports wi-fi and Bluetooth and will be built around the Android operating system when it launches in early 2014, but, unlike a number of other Android cameras already out there -- from the Nikon Coolpix S800c to the Samsung Galaxy Camera, the Socialmatic has another trick up its sleeve. It can share photos just as easily in the real as well as the virtual world. Thanks to a built-in Zink Printer, it can instantly print out a physical copy of anything it snaps -- just like the Polaroid cameras of old.

The camera will cost $299 (€225) when it ships, but for that, you'll get a 14-megapixel front facing lens and a 2-megapixel rear facing camera for the now-obligatory 'selfie' while inside it offers 4GB of storage plus further expansion via SD card.

The surprisingly slimline device also has a 4.3-inch color touch screen, integrated speakers (for video playback) and a number of standard photo filters that will be familiar to anyone who uses Instagram (the camera was originally conceived as the Instagram camera until Socialmatic went into partnership with Polaroid). What's more, it will be able to physically print photos sent from other cameras.

Topping it all off is a small LCD panel on the camera's front side which displays emoticons as a means of translating photography conditions into moods -- i.e., a miserable face means it is overcast or that light is low, etc.

The point-and-shoot digital camera market is already crowded and with the launch of smartphone handsets such as the Nokia Lumia 1020 which can give even a DSLR a run for its money, and most think the days of standalone digital cameras are numbered. However, this very hipster chic device might just succeed simply because it is so well focused on a single task and treats design and performance with equal importance.