Have you been frustratingly waiting for that promising Panasonic Lumix CM1 camera-phone to drop since the announcement back at CES?  I’m happy to report that it’s at least one step closer to getting into your pointing and shooting hands.
The CM1 has begun showing up for pre-order at US online retailers, appropriately popular camera electronic stores, B&H and Adorama.  We’re looking at a whopping price tag of $999.  I hope you were ready to pay a premium for a phone that puts the camera capability front and center.
Panasonic packed this guy with a large protruding 1-inch high-sensitivity MOS sensor, 20 MP f/2.8 Leica DC Elmarit 28mm lens, and a bunch of full manual controls to your heart’s desire.  It can shoot 4K video at 15 fps, support for RAW format, and 2X zooming.
The rest of the phone is fairly modest:
- 4.7-inch 1080P TFT LCD display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC (2.3 GHz, quad-core, Adreno 330 GPU)
- 2 GB of RAM
- 16 GB of on-board storage, expandable by 128 GB via microSD
- 1.1 MP front camera
- 2,600 mAh battery
- GSM-only network support, LTE capable
- Android 4.4 KitKat, with the promise for 5.0 Lollipop
For folks who welcome the mashup between smartphone and point-and-shooter, does the Panasonic CM1 still strike your interest?  Or is it too late, and/or too expensive?
