President Barack Obama may have a nuclear arsenal at his disposal, but the most powerful president in the world is unable to send out an emoji.
It is no news that security is very strict at the higher ranks of political power, and Obama's phone is probably the most guarded device of its kind. The soon-to-be ex-president was invited to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 10 and made some snarky remarks about the ridiculously few features of his phone.
Obama did admit that he uses a smartphone whose capabilities were stripped down to the max for security reasons. The U.S. president did not say which brand manufactured the device.
In a funny side note, Obama told the talk show host about the conversation he had with his team as they handed the gadget to him. According to the president, they said "this is a great phone, state of the art, but it doesn't take pictures, you can't text, the phone doesn't work and you can't play your music on it."
Obama went on to say, in a humorous tone, that it reminds him of a 3-year-old's play phone.
To make matters worse for the tech-savvy Commander-in-Chief, his family gets to toy around with fully-featured smartphones. This can understandably make the most powerful global leader a tad jealous.
"I've been seeing Malia and Sasha doing all this and Michelle's got three of them, she's texting and all this," Obama notes.
Many speculations roam concerning the president's technical preferences, and it is hard to tell where rumor ends and reality hits. Looking back to the preparations for his 2008 election, Obama was comfortable using a MacBook Pro. During the last few years, there is some photo evidence of the president wielding an iPad.
The fog gets thicker when Obama's smartphone choice comes into discussion. Back in the day, the president was an open BlackBerry loyalist. In a show of allegiance, Obama struggled with his team of security experts to keep his BlackBerry while in office.
Eventually, he was permitted to use a customized BlackBerry, but the phone had so little remaining features that Obama complained in 2010 that using the smartphone was "no fun."
Check out video below to see the how hilarity ensues as soon as Obama starts talking about the new smartphone that he received from his staff. Needless to say, Fallon's reactions are a blast as well.
