LG L-03C is a Camera With a Phone Attached

Is it a phone? Is it a camera? Is it a phonecamera? The answer, strangely, is yes to all these questions. 

Electronics firm, LG has produced the L-03C especially for Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo and what they have produced looks like a cross between an early version of a compact camera and a smartphone. It is certainly a strange looking device with the camera function dominating the phone side of things but whether it will work is another matter. 

On one side the L-03C looks as if it’s just a camera, with a lens incorporating an optical zoom and cheap-looking plastic casing. However flip it over and you find a 3in touch screen with full phone-calling capabilities - as well as a few dedicated camera buttons.

It is a strange device and it is unclear if it will ever see the light of day over here – or anywhere outside of Japan – but DoCoMo will no doubt be heralding the 12.1MP camera and the point-and-shoot simplicity of its camera phone (or phone camera depending on your point of view). The camera is equipped with a Pentax 1:3.6-5.5 lens, which can shoot 3 x the size using only optical zoom. While Nokiaand Samsung have both had 12MP cameras attached to their phones previously, neither have had the point-and-shoot simplicity of the L-03C. 

The camera also has video capability - which you would expect - shooting in 720p while on the phone side of things there are inbuilt WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connections again all specifications you would expect. 

The device will weigh 165g, which is less than the 180g of the HTC Desire Z, which is surprising given the sturdy look of the camera – though we suspect the device was styled to specifically look like a retro camera. Indeed this device weighs exactly the same as the camera-only Kodak EasyShare M580 which was released in September. 

The camera will be available in either black or champagne from January in Japan only.