CES 2014: Socialmatic is Polaroid's instant camera for the Instagram generation

Polaroid holds a certain amount of nostalgic values in our heart. We’ve all been mesmerised by instant pictures that poured out of a camera instantly, and have been enamoured by it despite the advent of digitisation of cameras. The nostalgic value has just been given a reboot, with a twist of retro filters to it. Say hello to Socialmatic by Polaroid that has made in appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas this year. The company says that the Socialmatic camera combines Polaroid’s instant image nostalgia with the modern convenience of being able to share clicked images instantly. Socialmatic is based on Android and has a front facing 14-megapixel camera and 2-megapixel back facing one to satisfy all your selfie needs. The retro camera comes with built-in Wi-Fi that will let you share your clicks instantly on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, it’s hard to miss the parallels between the retro-looking camera that features on Instagram’s logo and Polaroid’s new camera. The fact is that Instagram too borrowed heavily from the older Polaroid boxes, and so life is coming a full circle for both the companies with Socialmatic. The camera, staying true to the Polaroid heritage, lets you print out 2x3-inch copies right then and there. The photos come with a sticker backing, making it easy to decorate that picture wall in your house or your desk at work. The process plans to be a slight expensive affair, though. You will need to purchase special heat-activated Zink paper, which costs about $30 dollars for a pack of 80, reports CNET. The Socialmatic camera will let you touch up any image – add clipart, captions and more – before you print a picture. To enable this, the camera features a 4.5-inch touch screen LCD display and the camera features an LED flash too. It comes with 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded using a micro-SD card too. Now, the price has not been announced just yet, but Polaroid expects to be able to launch Socialmatic in fall of 2014. Whether or not the camera manages to really arrive for a decent price by this year remains to be seen, given Polaroid’s track records of being unable to meet targets in the past few years.