The best smartphone camera ever – but it comes at a cost
Virtually every mobile phone includes a camera, but few can match even a basic dedicated digital camera for quality and features. The Panasonic CM1 changes all that – it comes with a camera to rival premium compact cameras costing hundreds of pounds. Its sensor is nine times larger than those found in most phones. Sensor size is crucial for great-quality images, so the CM1 is off to a cracking start with this feature.
However, given its astronomical price, which far exceeds any iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, the CM1 needs to be excellent as both a phone and a camera. It certainly looks the part, with its brushed aluminium sides and leathereffect body. It’s heavier than your average smartphone, but this makes it satisfyingly weighty rather than a chore to carry. And we can live with its chunky design (about three times thicker than the slender iPhone 6).
With a quad-core processor and 2GB memory, the CM1 is up to scratch as an Android phone. The iPhone 6 was significantly faster in our performance benchmark tests, but the CM1 was still respectably pacy for an Android phone. There’s 16GB of included storage, plus a micro SDXC slot to add up to 128GB more. It comes with Android 4.4 (KitKat) pre-installed, with Android 5 promised in May 2015. We’re happy to report that Panasonic has made minimal changes Android, save for a couple of photography apps. Battery life in our video-playback test was lengthy at just over 11 and a half hours.
It works well as a camera too. There’s a dedicated switch to launch the camera app and a physical button for taking photos. We were able to go from standby mode to snapping photos in two seconds. You can assign different camera functions to the ring around the lens and the phone’s volume controls. The camera app is clearly laid out with access to all the settings you could hope for, including manual exposure and focus. Videos are recorded at 1080p and 4K resolutions. Although the latter is only at 15 frames per second, we do like the ability to extract 8-megapixel photos from 4K video files.
The 4.7in 1080p screen is larger than and has a higher resolution than any screen you’ll see on a digital camera, but we found it more susceptible to reflections than most when shooting in strong sunlight. The inability to tilt the screen is another black mark compared to other premium compact cameras, and the lack of an ergonomic handgrip makes it harder to hold steady.
Image quality in bright conditions was fantastic, though, with 20-megapixel photos jam-packed with clean, sharp details. Meanwhile, the ability to shoot in RAW mode and process photos in Adobe Lightroom lets you apply colour correction beyond what is possible with JPEG files.
Image quality in low light was excellent compared with other smartphones, but it pales when compared with dedicated cameras with the same large sensor, such as the Canon G7 X. This comes with optical stabilisation, a wider-aperture lens to capture more light and is easier to hold. In short, low-light image quality is significantly better on the Lumix CM1 than in most smartphones, but still way behind that of a £400 camera.
There’s a lot to be said for the convenience of a high-quality camera and phone in a single device, but at £800 this is hard to justify – especially when buying a comparable phone (the Motorola Moto X) and a superior camera (the Canon G7 X) would cost you about the same amount. Keep an eye on the CM1’s price, though. If it fell to £600 it would be harder to resist.
VERDICT
A great camera and a good phone, but you pay a high price for having both in a single device.
SPECIFICATIONS
4.7in 1920x1080-pixel touchscreen • 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor • Adreno 330 graphics chip • 2GB memory • 16GB storage • 4G • Micro SIM • Micro SDXC slot • Android 4.4 Kit Kat • 204g • 135x68x21mm (HxWxD) • Oneyear warranty