Nearly a year after its announcement, and nine months after its planned launch, the Trump phone has finally arrived – although it will be different from what was initially revealed.
The Trump phoneofficially known as the Trump Mobile T1, arrived here this week. CNET placed a pre-order with a $100 deposit in June 2025, and it’s worth noting that Trump Mobile expedited our shipping so we could review the T1. (It’s common for a phone company to reserve review units for journalists, but Trump Mobile has not done so.)
Trump Mobile launched in June 2025 with a Cell phone plan at $47.45 per monthand it announced that the T1 would be manufactured in the United States and launched in August 2025. But when it became clear that large-scale domestic smartphone manufacturing would not be possible, Trump Mobile abandoned the project. “Made in USA” claim and delayed the launch.
Last month, a redesigned Trump Mobile website finally featured a new T1 phoneIt is third redesign. This followed Trump Mobile executives showing off a handset they said was a near-production version of the T1 phone to The Verge in early February.
THE Android phone was delayed due to production issues, the company said last week, when it confirmed the phone would begin shipping to customers.
“The tech industry is more difficult than some people think because parts must be tested to ensure quality,” Pat O’Brien, CEO of Trump Mobile, said in a statement to CNET last week. “We have experienced delays during various stages of completing Q1, but these delays are worth it to us because we are delivering an incredible product.”
This long weekend, I’ll be testing the phone in a real-world environment, using it as my primary phone over the Memorial Day long weekend. I’ll live blog my experiences as I go, updating any anecdotes or tests I run.
T1 Trump phone is the same color as Scrooge McDuck’s gold coins
See all photos
How long does it take to charge Trump phone?
By Corinne Reichert
Here’s everything you get with the Trump Mobile T1 phone, including a gold and black charger and charging cable.
Patrick Holland/CNETUsing the charger and charging cable that came in the box, it took just under an hour to fully charge the Trump phone. Not too bad, depending on how rushed you are, but definitely longer than necessary in my opinion. Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus load. For reference, the Trump phone has a 5,000 mAh battery, while my three-year-old S23 Plus only has a 4,563 mAh capacity. But the Samsung phone supports 45 watts wired charging and the T1 Trump Mobile device has a higher wired charging speed of 30 watts.
First impressions: not the best shade of gold
By Corinne Reichert
This is perhaps the worst possible shade of gold.
Corinne Reichert/CNETAfter an 80-minute round trip to pick up the Trump phone from my local FedEx after it was picked up overnight by my colleague Patrick Holland, my first thought upon opening the box was: This is not the shade of matte gold I would have chosen for my flagship phone. It was sort of peeing dehydrated.
The phone’s battery was dead on arrival, although Patrick notes that when he first took it out of the box it was at 53% and that he had it on constantly during a live Q&A show and when taking photos, and never recharged it. So this phone could potentially have pretty decent battery life.
One of the only specs shared by Trump Mobile is that it has a 5,000 mAh battery. Paired with an efficient processor, likely the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, it could last a long time. I’m going to run some battery tests on it in the next few days.
For now, I’m measuring the time it takes to charge using the supplied Trump phone charger.
The Trump Phone runs Android, but what about updates?
By Patrick Hollande
The T1 Trump mobile phone runs Android 15. But how many years of software and security updates will it receive?
Patrick Holland/CNETOne of the surprises we found when first powering up the T1 phone is that it runs a near-stock version of Android 15. There is no “TrumpOS” software layer on top. A lot phone manufacturers will add their own software to a phone with Android as the base. Samsung to his User interface softwaresometimes called skin, but at its core it is still Android. On the other hand, Google, which makes Android, does not have this additional software layer on its computer. Pixel Phones.
Even though the Trump phone uses what appears to be a clean version of Android, it comes with the Doctegrity and Truth Social apps preinstalled. But how long does Trump Mobile commit to keeping the T1 phone software up to date?
Samsung and Google each offer seven years of operating system updates (think from Android 16 to 17) and seven years of security updates for the phones they sell – and that includes phones like the $499 Pixel 10A. It’s unclear how Trump Mobile will handle updates. If the T1 Trump Mobile phone is indeed based on the HTC U24 Pro 5G, that puts it at a disadvantage, since that HTC phone launched in 2024. Even if Trump Mobile were to meet Motorola’s 3-year commitment to operating system and security updates for its budget phones, the T1’s hardware could still limit its longevity.
How many stripes are there on the American flag?
By Corinne Reichert
As previously reported, we can confirm that the Trump phone has an incorrect number of stripes on the American flag.
There are supposed to be 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies of the United States, but the flag printed on the back of this gold phone only has 11.
The American flag, however, has the required 50 stars.
