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Altek Leo Crams 14 Megapixel Camera with Optical Zoom into Phone, Maybe Android?

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 8:58 AM

Last summer, Altek made a cameraphone with 12 megapixel camera and 3 x optical zoom, but have today upped the ante with a 14 megapixel model. Yeah, it’s not all in the megapixel count, but damn if that isn’t just a little impressive. The Leo also keeps the 3 x optical zoom and both LED and Xenon flash. as well as HD video recording. The actual phone part of the phone sounds passable, including 3G and Wi-Fi, and might be running Android, considering the keys below the touchscreen and smartphone label.

12 megapixel cameras in specialty phones like the Samsung Pixon12 and the Sony Ericsson Satio are just now starting to come to market, while 8 megapixel cameras are becoming commonplace in upper-end smartphones, like the Galaxy S, X10, Evo, and Incredible. I’m curious of Altek’s announcement will put a fire under the manufacturers to bump up their pixel count, or if they’ll continue refining their existing technology. It’s a bit of a toss-up, really – if your camera has bad software, it doesn’t matter how many pixels it captures.

If Leo actually does run on Android, the only thing to be worried about is the camera’s sensor, rendering and lens quality. If they’re solid, I would really love to see this phone in North America, but considering the Altek Leo will be launching in June at the CommunicAsia conference, I won’t hold my breath.

[Altek via GSMArena]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • shantanu

    what is the price of altek 14 mega pixel ?

  • Mark S

    499 $

  • http://newbestgadget.com Best Gadgets

    even if the quality of the pictures are decent have do you expect a single company out of nowhere creating that with out having a bad interface? oh and the girl totally killed the picture for me. haha