Details of North Korea’s smartphone revealed: outdated camera raises questions about Kim Jong-un

The Arirang handset, a North Korean-made Android smartphone, got a major boost in global visibility a couple days ago when its factory got a visit from the most important person you can get a visit from in North Korea: Kim Jong-un. But the phone’s specs have been something of a mystery until now; thanks to a report from Sohu Digital (in Chinese), we know a bit more about the device.

According to the report, the Arirang runs Android 4.1, and it supports both 3G (probably WCDMA) and wifi. The latter is a bit of a surprise because North Korea’s homemade tablet doesn’t do wifi (the country doesn’t have the internet, though it does have an intranet), but the Arirang is apparently more capable. In terms of hardware, the Arirang is rocking a 4.2 inch HD screen, a 4-core processor, and a surprisingly underpowered 1 MP camera.

The camera actually appears to be a point of interest, as Kim Jong-un apparently singled it out for praise during his visit to the May 11 Factory where the Arirang is supposedly produced. That may indicate that Kim isn’t aware that people are making 41 megapixel phones these days. It has also thrown a bit of cold water on speculation that the phone was manufactured mostly or completely in China, because as the Sohu Digital report points out, “there is no way that a shanzhai factory in China would produce a camera phone with only 1 megapixel.” (Obviously the term shanzhai is not synonymous with quality, but even so I have to agree; it seems pretty unlikely that a Chinese smartphone factory would even still be set up to produce such an outdated camera.)

Of course, crappy camera or no, North Korea’s 2 million 3G subscribers don’t have much choice when it comes to smartphones, as the Arirang is the Hermit Kingdom’s first-ever Android handset. But it does make you wonder if Kim Jong-un was putting on a propaganda show when he praised the camera’s pixel count, or if he really isn’t aware that a 1 MP camera is hopelessly outdated by global standards. If it’s the latter and he ever finds out, the folks at the May 11 factory may have a little explaining to do.

(Sohu Digital via TechWeb)