Polaroid SC1630 Android HD smart camera hands-on, is it a cameraphone or a phonecamera?

The camera modules in smartphones continually improve, and these days there are phones like the iPhone 4S and the Nokia N9 who can take snapshots as good -- and sometimes better -- than point-and-shoots. Polaroid's known for making cameras, but its newest device, a rebrand of the Aigo A8 we saw at CES last year, flips the script by taking a 16 megapixel point-and-shoot and shoving an Android phone inside.

The Polaroid version's called the SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera, and it's packed with 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA and 850/900/1800/1900 GSM radios, along with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and an FM antenna thrown in for good measure. The SC1630 sports an 800 x 400 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, while underneath there's 512MB of built-in storage and 512MB of RAM, along with proximity and G-sensors, micro SIM slot, Micro USB and a 2.5mm headphone jack. As we said above, the camera is a 16 megapixel unit, with aperture of F3.1 - F5.6, 3X optical zoom and 5X digital zoom, a max shutter speed of 1/1400 and ISO tops out at 3200. It's got geotagging and anti-shake support as well, and can shoot videos in 720p. Scheduled to arrive in April for $299, the device still has a few kinks to be worked out and there may be some changes to that hardware before it makes it to market. Here at CES 2012, we got a chance to lay hands on the phone and speak with Emanuel Verona, Polaroid's Executive VP and COO about the company's first Android offering, so read on past the break for our impressions and his thoughts.

Gallery: Polaroid SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera hands-on