UPDATED 02:27 EST / APRIL 15 2015

NEWS

Chinese company launches “Le Smartphone,” with a marketing campaign comparing Apple to Nazism

le smartphoneChinese video sharing site LeTV has entered the smartphone market and has launched “Le Smartphone,” a decent phone that is being marketed by comparing Apple to Nazism.

The marketing for the phone includes a cartoon showing Hitler doing a Nazi salute while wearing an armband with the Apple logo on it, along with a pitch from CEO Jia Yueting on Weibo that claims that Apple is an “arrogant regime” that has embraced “tyranny.”

But back to the phone.

While the sum total of people outside of China who have heard of LeTV is precisely zero, and that the company is basically an upmarket version of YouTube and has never made a phone before, surprisingly doesn’t mean they can’t make a decent phone, and the Le Smartphone is actually rather appealing.

The first thing of note about the phone is that it doesn’t have a bezel, delivering 5.5 inches of what can only fairly be described as seriously good looking. Under the hood, the phone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 4GB of ram, a 21-megapixel camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

In terms of first mover status, the phone hasn’t been shipped with a typical Micro USB port but instead (ironically given they’re apparently Nazi’s) has followed Apple’s lead with its Macbook and instead offers a USB-C port.

The company hasn’t disclosed the resolution of the phone’s screen, however in its rather unique press release, it does say that the phone offers an “Exceptional Screen Experience” and that the phone “offers a more dynamic color range than any other leading smartphone.”

One other feature the phone offers is “live television;” given the scant details provided by the company it’s difficult to quantify exactly what this means. It could be anything from watching free-to-air television through to a streaming service of some sort, although given the company essentially is an online video company, you’d probably think it was some variation of the latter.

The price of the phone was not disclosed, nor the exact launch date, with the company simply saying that it will be released in the United States “later this year,” although the phone has already gone on sale in China.

Oh, and a picture from their advertising campaign as follows.

letv hitler


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.