Kodak EKTRA Smartphone

This phone is really amazing. When I told my friends I was buying a "not-so-familiar" brand phone everyone was skeptical, but I have absolutely no regrets. I have been using it for a few weeks and here is my likes and dislikesLikes:- The design is completely unique.Everyone I showed this phone to is overall impressed by the look. The leather texture and unique design is absolutely beautiful.- The leather is good against heat.It gets really hot here in Africa and can cause other phones to overheat easily, but the leather "seems" to keep it cooler than other phones- The back camera is beautifulTakes absolutely beautiful photos and with the manual mode you can have so much control. It also has this feature where you dont use the home (bottom buttons) to go out of the camera, instead the camera app has a on screen "X" button to exit the camera to avoid accidentally closing the camera app and missing your perfect photo.- The apps.Comes with a lot of google apps which makes it easy to connect with your google account. (Google play music, google keep, google's snapseed, google chrome, gmail, youtube, google maps, google keyboard) Since these are the default apps there isnt any apps that are double on this phone like other andriod phones (for example there isnt two browsers or two email apps standard on this phone)- The charger.It comes with a fast charger.- The camera buttonI love the unique camera button and also the camera like effect of focusing when you press it slightly.- The strapInstead of headphones it comes with a strap like a normal camera that you can use to hook on your wrist to avoid dropping the phone.Dislikes:- The designSince its so unique you wont find covers for it easily. The camera stands out by a few mm even though the frame of the lens protects the lens from being scratched it just feels weird putting your camera on the big lens.- The cameraThe selfie camera is not THAT great, but compared to other products with the same price it is amazing. The night effect is not that great and i havent played much with the flash but the photos I did take with the flash on did not come out too great.- The gallery/downloadingWhen you download a picture it does not get picked up under the gallery app. You need to go into your downloads folder and move it to the gallery in order to use the picture you downloaded with another app that opens your gallery to find pictures.(example of apps tested: whatsapp snapchat)- The battery/ chargingIt seems to take a really long time before its fully charged. It says "charging rapidly" but at the same time it will say "5 hours remaining to fully charged". This is when using the charger it came with. Using a different charger will say "charging slowly" and "18 hours to fully charged". (Note: this is from 15% battery power remaining and battery saver on. Switching off the power completely greatly increase charging time.

January 29, 2020, Final Update: This was a great phone for the money when I bought it. But sadly once I added three apps to it that I need to use every day, it started going downhill. This started last summer. Now my phone gets super hot and freezes all the time. It's very buggy. I think it just can't handle apps. We never had an update that I can recall, which sucks. It needed updates. Initially I gave this 5 stars. But I'm bringing it down to 3 stars due to its lack of longevity. I only had a little over one year where it was working great, then it slowly started going downhill. Recently it's been barely working for me. I am sad about this. I enjoyed its camera so much at the time. Today I'm waiting on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus to arrive at my house. Yeah, it's a huge jump from this phone in all aspects. Kodak should have kept updating this phone. I would not trust them again if they made a newer phone, simply because of the lack of support on their end. I couldn't believe they were still selling this Kodak Ektra. So I figured I best update this review. This was a great phone for a short amount of time. RIP my Kodak Ektra. =(My Older Review:I was looking for an affordable camera-centric cell phone to upgrade to that was compatible with Tracfone. This was such a surprise to find. It's currently selling for $300 on HSN with the leather camera case included. I checked here and was happy to find the much lower price ($155), even when I added the leather case (another $57). If you're upgrading or new with Tracfone you'll need to buy a Smartphone SIM kit, which you can do here as a $1 add-on, otherwise about $10 local. On their website I went into my account and chose "add a phone", when it asked if I wanted to keep my number, I said yes and gave it my number, then it asked for the SIM card # I installed, and within a minute everything from my old phone ported over, my data, minutes and time as well as my phone number. There are three cards in the SIM kit, you need to figure out what carrier Tracfone is using in your area and choose that SIM card. It took me a while to figure out which one to use. If you don't already have an account with Tracfone, then there's a page for setting up your new phone. (Btw, $125 buys you a year with Tracfone prepaid, with 1500 minutes and texts, and 1.5 gb data. It is $10 extra per 1 gb data add-on. It averages out to $10/month. Seriously, why are you paying hundreds of dollars a month? No monthly bills, carry over for everything. I upgraded an older Tracfone phone and everything I had (minutes, texts and data) smoothly went to this phone. Wifi helps a lot with data usage. I've been with Tracfone for years, can you tell? It's saved my family thousands and we're on the same networks of the higher priced companies. (Just saying.))I spent the entire weekend playing around with this remarkable phone. I explored not only the camera and 4k video, but also the wonderful camera apps they included. I'm an amateur photographer who spent years taking photos for my local humane society, as well as having some of my local Americana photographs ending up in the our town's newspaper. I've logged hundreds of hours in Photoshop, and can tell you the included Snapspeed app is pretty darn cool and easy to use. This camera takes such incredible pictures, I find I need to do very little in processing. I love, love having the camera button on the phone, which turns it on in a snap after you push it twice. I've missed many pictures with my old phone because I was too busy turning it on and opening the camera program. When you do that though, not all of the camera/video functions work, but it's enough to get that shot or video in a pinch. The camera strap is nice, I use it when walking around to get shots, and if I'm not using it, it never gets in the way of a shot, the location of the lens makes that impossible. I love how I can touch the DSLR dial just once, and it gets much bigger so I can see the options without my glasses, and spin the sucker around for the option I want, then press again for it to disappear. Really, wow. Having DSLR camera functions is what makes this a superior camera phone. It has filters, like Super 8, that are fun to use. My only complaint thus far is the zoom. I wish it could do more than 4x. Please Kodak, if you're reading this, we need more zoom! It does excellent in low light. You'll get great shots and videos in low light. The buttons are located appropriately, I even like where the usb connection is located in the handle part. The camera/phone weighs about the same as my 2-year old phone, a ZTE Zmax2. I was hoping the operating system would upgrade to Android 7.0, it hasn't.I'm still waiting on the leather case to arrive, so for now I'm careful to lay the phone down on the flat side. There's no need to buy extra screen protectors, unless you're really rough with your phone. It has gorilla glass on the screen and lens, which is pretty heavy duty. The skin is a high quality leatherette, that you'll not want to cover up with any kind of phone skin. The speakers are full and loud. No worries there. My old phone was 5.5 inches, but I'm not seeing the loss in size going to this one, as the screen still feels substantial. All of my apps on this phone run fluidly. I have a 32gb micro sd card in it, that's filling up fast with my 4k video and pics, so I'll be getting a larger size external card. I've downloaded movies and pics to my computer using the usb cable easily. Do note that you need to go onto your phone and drag down from the top to select what you're doing: charging, files, or pictures (videos too). If you don't do this, the folder will be empty on your computer. It took me a few minutes to figure this out.Now as far as watching my 4k videos on my Windows 7 computer, so far, that's a no go unless I watch them on youtube, facebook or on my cell. I've tried every program imaginable and it just doesn't play or open. You have the option to have your video in 1080p, which is what it's factory set at btw, I may have to go back to that if I want to see anything on my old computer. I've no idea if a newer computer would solve that problem. If you're reading this and have any ideas on how I can see these videos on my computer without having to go through youtube, please let me know by leaving a comment here. I'm currently stumped. I don't want to go to 1080p, because in about 5 years time, the videos won't look as good. And the difference is quite acute between the two as it stands.I'm truly flabbergasted by any bad reviews this phone is getting. I'm blown away by it. This sexy phone is a giant step in the right direction and I hope Kodak will keep making camera-centric cell phones. I haven't had this much fun in ages. I'm tired of lugging around a huge camera and my antiquated video camera to events. This is such a great all-in-one option for me. I need to learn how to burn digital videos to DVD, but I know it's possible, and I'm excited. I defy anyone to find such a great cell phone at this price. I'm elated and yes, I highly recommend!

After waiting for the phone to arrive I get it, in pack it and turn it on only to find out that the screen turns on but has no touch function, and the Sim card/SD card tray does not eject. Now I'm out money that I didn't need to spend on a phone that I can't even use due to it being inoperable upon arrival.

Works well when it works. Sent it off for warranty work twice in less than four months. First time because the camera stopped focusing, second time because it glitches and freezes at the slightest nudge or bump. Would not recommend.

I have been using the Koday EKTRA for six months now, and overall I like it. I especially like the quality of pictures it takes. I love that it allows me to take pictures in RAW format. My greatest disappointment with the phone is its battery life. The phone can also get a little hot. The placement of the volume buttons could have been smarter; the current placement makes it difficult to use this camera-featured phone impossible to be used on a tripod or selfie-stick or phone-holder in a car. I also found some things about the phone just weird. The front-facing (or the selfie) camera is pretty powerful at 13 megapixels. So I don't understand why Kodak restricted the video quality of this camera at 480p. Overall though, I am pleased with my phone. That is partly because I am not a picky phone user, and also because of the fact that I got the phone at a heavily discounted price ($110).