North Korea's new smartphone looks suspiciously familiar
It's not just you -- this phone looks really familiar to us, too.
North Korean company Mangyongdae Information Technology Corporation just dropped the Jindallae 3, and it looks a whole lot like an iPhone.
The phone, named after a Korean rhododendron, would be "entirely domestically produced" in the reclusive dictatorship, according to state-run DPRK Today.
DPRK Today said that the phone was designed and assembled domestically, from its appearance and structure, to its circuit design and apps.
It didn't give any specifications for the Jindallae 3, but the new device is reportedly "versatile and multifunctional" and includes "various kinds" of apps "necessary for people's business and life," according to NK News.
The Jindallae 3 appears to come in black and white, and photos released by DPRK Today show a pretty large screen. The white version even appears to have a hint of gold in it:
Although it's more likely that the phone will run a heavily modified version of Android, or the country's Linux-based Red Star OS, it's clear that quite a bit of design inspiration was taken from iOS.
You can see the app icons for calls, photos, music, and calendar looking quite a lot like the iPhone's stock apps.
The phone uses an oval home button more commonly found on Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and its home launcher is similar to the stock Android version.
The Jindallae 3 is not North Korea's first smartphone -- the country first produced the Arirang in 2013. But analysts suspect that the Arirang, which was advertised as "locally-made", had been assembled in China and packaged in a North Korean factory.
North Korea's current leader Kim Jong-un is famously an Apple fan, as was his father, Kim Jong-il, before him.
The release of the phone follows the recent announcement of a North Korean tablet named the IPad.
North Korean telco Koryolink said in 2014 that it had more than 2.5 million registered users on its network, according to Reuters. The real number of users is likely to be lower, however, as North Koreans use multiple lines to save money by using their monthly free minutes, rather than buy expensive top-ups.
I am an intern with Mashable Asia, focusing on viral news, lifestyle news and feature news in the region.
