North Korea has continued to release new smartphone models despite the closure of its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the economic difficulties that have resulted, Daily NK has learned.
Recently, several reporting partners inside North Korea sent Daily NK a photo of an advertisement for North Korea’s “Jindallae” smartphone, along with information on the major performance specs of the Jindallae 400, Jindallae 9 and Madusan 222.
When exactly the phones in question were released remains unknown, but given that some of them incorporate the latest, previously unused technology and later versions of the Androi operating system, they appear to have been produced recently.
North Korea promotes the Jindallae as an indigenously developed smartphone, designed by the Mangyongdae Information Technology Corporation. The last released model was 2020’s Jindallae 7.
Daily NK could not determine the model of the Jindallae smartphone that appears in the photo of the ad, but its use of a pop-up camera is noteworthy. A popup camera remains hidden at the top of the phone, but pops up when the user uses the front camera. The phone featured a bezel-less display design. In particular, the ad says the camera passed a “100,000 use inspection” in response to the fragility of popup cameras.
The ad also says the camera has “four levels of artificial intelligence.” Considering this, it appears the smartphone has an AI camera. AI cameras do things such as automatically focusing on the subject and blurring the background in portrait shots, or ensuring properly lit photos in dark environments — for example, it the user photographs a flower, it might analyze the shape and color of the floor and automatically search for information, or if the camera detects text, it can extract and translate the information.
Moreover, Daily NK obtained performance information on other smartphone models that appear to be recently released.
According to the performance info, the Jindallae 400 has two versions: a standard one and an “expanded” one.
Both models are 158.5×75.7×9.5mm, have 6.39-inch AMOLED displays with full HD (2340×1080/409ppi), MediaTek MT6785 8x Cortex-A73 2.3GHz processors, Android 11.0 operating systems (Rainbow 6.0) and 4500mAh batteries. Both weigh 215 grams.
The Rainbow 6.0 is the Jindallae’s exclusive UI system. The Jindallae 7 released in 2020 used Rainbow 4.0. It appears an updated version was released in the meantime.
The standard version of the Jindallae 400 has 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage, while the expanded version has 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage, while the front and rear cameras have 16MP and 48MP and 24MP and 64MP, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Jindallae 9 is 156.8×76.2×9.5mm, has a 6.22-inch screen (HD/720×1560), a MT6580 4X Cortex-A71 1.3GHz processor, Android 7.0 operating system (Rainbow 4.5) and a 4200mAh battery. It weighs 180 grams.
Given that the Jindallae 9 is less high-performance than the Jindallae 400, it appears to be a low-end smartphone. North Korea may be trying to maximize profits by releasing smartphones of various performances and prices to satisfy consumer demands.
The Madusan 222 smartphone developed by the Madusan Economic Federation is 168×76.8×8.6mm, has a 6.78-inch display (1080×2460), a MT6789(G99) 8Core, 2.2GHz processor and Android 12.0 operating system, along with a 4500mAh battery.
Given that it uses a more recent version of Android than the Madusan 217 model released in 2022, the Madusan 222 may be a new model released after the Madusan 217.
The striking thing about the Madusan 222 is that it can read thumbprints. Like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, the phone seems to have a fingerprint reader that can unlock the phone. Thus, North Korea appears to be releasing smartphones that incorporate the latest technology.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
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