Social media has for years tried to get into the hardware game in order to integrate its services more seamlessly with the device. Remember the HTC Facebook phone, Snapchat glasses or Amazon Fire phone? Now ByteDance, the owner of the immensely popular TikTok, has released a smartphone in China called the Jianguo Pro 3. The TikTok phone hasn’t been branded such directly, but the DNA is there.
The new TikTok phone is available in China now and costs the equivalent of just over $400. ByteDance’s massive growth has come as a result of TikTok’s (formally known as Music.ly) meteoric rise and they are trying to tap into that market in China, where their user base is largest and engagement on the platform most prolific.
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The TikTok app can be accessed on the phone simply by swiping up on the lockscreen, giving users quick access to the interface and quick posting ability.
The TikTok phone has relatively high-end specs that wouldn’t look out of place on most flagships. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, has a 4,000mAh battery, and it features a quad-camera array on its rear. The array includes a main 48-megapixel sensor along with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera, an 8-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. On the front there’s a 20-megapixel selfie camera and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Earlier this year, ByteDance confirmed that the smartphone is a “continuation of plans that were in place before ByteDance began working with Smartisan,” which explains why this isn’t a more heavily TikTok-integrated device. As the TikTok phone sales start showing numbers, there could be plans for another device with slightly deeper integration into the platform, but all remains to be seen.
