I cannot believe the Trump Mobile T1 has gotten even uglier — and now you have more reasons not to buy it | Tech Radar

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I cannot believe the Trump Mobile T1 has gotten even uglier — and now you have more reasons not to buy it

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Anyone remember the "Jesus Phone"? It's what we called the i Phone before (and a bit after) launch. It was that special, that important. Think of the Trump Mobile T1 phone as the antithesis of that. It's a flagship that's been promised but never delivered for almost a year and has now transmogrified into a gold-encrusted abomination of an Android 15 phone.

Even though it bears the US leader's favorite fake precious metal, this is not a "President Donald Trump Phone." It's brought to you by Trump's family as part of a broader effort to sell you on the Trump Mobile network. A fledgling MVNO where you can also buy aging and refurbished "Samsung S24" and "Apple i Phone 15" phones.

The Trump Mobile phone is delayed until at least March

The Trump phone seems to be real – and we just got our best look yet at it

There's another sign that the Trump phone might actually be launching

There's nothing special about the network, unless you consider the brand name special (20GB of high-speed data at $47.45 a month), but the Trump T1 phone is supposed to be a big deal. First of all, it was going to be Made in America. Strike that. Trump Mobile quickly realized that it was virtually impossible to build a smartphone — from the silicon and components to the Gorilla glass and casing — in the US. Someone in the Trump orbit should've asked Tim Cook, who could have clued them in on reality.

In short order, the site switched from "Made in" to more or less, "America Proud Design".

That switch, though, has not helped Trump Mobile actually deliver the phone, which customers began pre-ordering last year. There have been numerous delays, and while a company rep told me in January that we should expect the phone in March, that date has come and gone.

Now, though, we have a different Trump Mobile T1 phone. That's right, the company quietly redesigned its site and did a sneaky switch on the phone. It's gone from a brushed-gold phone with flat edges and a three-camera array that resembled the i Phone 16's setup, to, well, something different.

The new T1 looks like it's been dipped in copper-hued gold. It features retro-curved sides, and on the back is an ugly black and gold, capsule-shaped vertical camera array. The giant "T1" is gone, and the previously lightly etched American flag is now a deeply embossed emblem. Right below that is "Trump Mobile".

From a spec point of view, this might be a better phone. It has a slightly larger screen (6.78in vs 6.7in) that refreshes at up to 120 Hz. And instead of one 50MP camera and a 2MP macro, there are now three 50MP lenses (including a 2X telephoto). It also has a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, though the site does not specify which one.

Even so, the phone is still inexplicably running Android 15, even though we're well into the Android 16 product cycle and this close to learning about Android 17.

Why the i Phone 17e has been overshadowed by the Nothing Phone (4a)

You can now buy an i Phone 17 Pro with a piece of Steve Jobs' turtleneck

But if I step back and take a look at this phone, I can honestly say, "blech."

Look, design and aesthetics are personal things. Your Corvette is my Edsel. Your Armani suit is my Mc Donald's clown costume. There is, as they say, no accounting for taste. But that's what this phone lacks: the taste and the class it so desperately desires.

Of course, people love Rose Gold phones, but a gold phone like this (even if it is a bit coppery) is garish. What's worse is that the Trump T1 phone lacks modernity. It looks like a smartphone time-traveled from 2011 directly to this Trump Mobile website.

There is, of course, another chance to pre-order the phone. You put down $100, which Trump Mobile promises to apply toward the cost of the T1 phone when you get it. Stop laughing, I know. I can only imagine how those who did the first pre-order round feel right now.

Somehow, Trump Mobile has managed to never deliver its promised smartphone while still completely refashioning it, and then acts as if there's nothing to see here except more awesomeness. The least they could've done is call it the Trump Mobile T2 phone. No consumer is that gullible, are they?

The phone, by the way, is still $499. It's an okay price for a gold idol of a smartphone that will never be mistaken for a device worthy of a deity, prophet, or just the average American.

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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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