Skip to main content

Panasonic's incredible cameraphone is coming to America, Leica lens and all

The Lumix CM1 is here to seriously up your photo game

In September, Panasonic made waves at Photokina by using a camera show to announce a smartphone. But the Lumix CM1 isn’t just any smartphone: it has a 1-inch sensor, the kind you’d find in high-end point-and-shoot cameras, plus an f/2.8 Leica lens that you’d be lucky to find on a high-end point-and-shoot. Along with a 20-megapixel sensor, this phone is designed to basically reinvent the wheel when it comes to smartphone cameras.

It also has a 4.7-inch, 1080p display, a Snapdragon processor, Android 4.4, and 2GB of RAM. We liked it a lot at Photokina: it’s fast, full of useful camera software, and surprisingly manageable in size given what’s inside.

This is the kind of phone that never comes to America, the spec monster that companies make and sell internationally without trying to crack the complicated and saturated US market. But Panasonic just announced at its CES 2015 press conference that the Lumix CM1 is coming to our shores this summer.

Gizmodo reports that the CM1 will be sold unlocked, for $1,000, which means it would work on AT&T and T-Mobile. Those, of course, may not be the only deals. But either way, soon enough you too can be shooting with full manual controls and capturing 4K video on your phone — and sneering at everyone who’s taking pictures on their lowly iPhones.

See all the latest CES 2015 news here ›

1/17