After months of waiting, Trump Mobile’s American smartphone (AKA the Trump Mobile T1 AKA the Trump Phone) is finally in the hands of consumers — or, at least, a select few journalist reviewers who spent their own hard earned money to procure one.
Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien previously announced the devices would start shipping last week, and it appears the promise was at least partially kept, as tech journalists began receiving devices a few days ago.
Just a little recap: The Trump Phone was announced last June, marketed as a gold “Made In America” Android device that would run a user only $500. The company then opened up a $100 preorder for the device. Shortly after, users realized the “Made In America” label was too good to be true, and as the release deadline was pushed further and further, many believed it would all turn out to be a scam. The device’s Terms & Conditions were an even bigger mystery, including a stipulation that Trump Mobile couldn’t guarantee the device would ever be released. A totally normal thing to include.
The Verge then reported on an official FCC listing that seemed to confirm O’Brien’s comments. A few days later, Trump Mobile execs confirmed to the press that customer data was leaking onto the open internet, due to a third-party platform provider.
At least the phone is here.
Unboxing the Trump Phone
Our colleagues over at CNET have done the full unboxing, and it is, contrary to popular belief, real: A golden smartphone complete with etched American flag logo (but only 11 stripes instead of 13).
Mashable Light Speed
It comes in a sleek black box emblazoned with the same minimalist flag motif — kind of like those baseball caps your uncle wears — and reads only “assembled in the USA,” not made in the USA, so jury is still out on the phone’s manufacturing origins. Inside the box is a wall plug, braided USB-C cord, and a SIM card tool, CNET reported.
The device’s camera bump is marked with the Trump Mobile logo (that is, just the words “Trump Mobile”). It’s longer than an iPhone 17, NBC News reported, and has a slim screen bezel with a camera cutout. It looks, to the trained eye, nearly identical to the 2024 HTC U24 Pro, similar to mockups released earlier this year.
The Trump Phone specs: Storage, performance, headphone jack?
The phone comes with 512 GB of storage and — wait a minute — a headphone jack?! That’s right; as the public yearns for the days of analogue tech, Trump Mobile is bringing back the jack.
The device has a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen and a 50-megapixel front-facing camera. It runs off a 5,000-mAh battery and uses an unnamed Snapdragon mobile platform.
According to initial testing by CNET’s Patrick Holland, the phone has an 8-core processor, which he theorizes is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. He compares the Trump Mobile phone’s performance on standard benchmark tests to 2020-2022 Android phones, like the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
The CNET team will be posting live reviews of the phone as they test it over the weekend. Said NBC’s Brian Cheung: “It works like any other phone.”
T1 comes with Truth Social preloaded. Duh.
Last but not least, the phone comes with the Truth Social app automatically downloaded to every user’s home screen.
And that is fine, because there is absolutely nothing weird about the U.S. President creating his own social media platform for free speech and then having it preinstalled directly onto a communication device branded with his last name.
Topics
Android
Donald Trump
