Earlier this year North Korea built its own tablet, showing off the Android-based Samjiyon at the International Trade Fair in Pyongyang. We never expected the mysterious device to go on sale outside of the isolated dictatorship, but last week the Samjiyon surfaced on eBay with an opening bid of just $4.15. With six days left before the auction closes, the price has already jumped up to $520.
The North Korean tablet reportedly sells for just $200, but whoever buys this copy will likely view the device as a collector’s item rather than a regular tablet. The eBay post claims the device is equipped with a 7-inch 800 x 400-pixel display, a 1GHz processor and 4GB of storage. Those specs are a significant downgrade from earlier reports, which claimed the device offered a 1,024 by 768-pixel display, either 8GB or 16GB or storage, and a 1.2GHz processor.
The Canadian seller lists the device’s shipping location as Yanji, China, which happens to be just across the border from North Korean, suggesting the tablet was likely smuggled out of the country. Then again, we’ve heard reports of tourists simply purchasing a copy and carrying it out of the country with no issue, so maybe we’ll get another chance to pick up a Samjiyon in the near future.
