The golden phone Donald Trump’s company promised has been seen again — but not quite as advertised.
After months of teasers, vanished deadlines and a trickle of statements, Trump Mobile’s signature T1 handset surfaced on a video call with reporters this week. The device shown to The Verge looks different from the mockups that appeared on the company website last year: a curved waterfall display, a vertical camera island where an angular triangle once sat, and a design that reportedly will drop the T1 logo while keeping the gold finish and an American flag motif.
Specs, prices and shifting promises
The device that executives briefly showed off during the call appears to be closer to a near-production model than a concept render, yet the specs have been slippery. Early web listings promised a midrange experience — a 6.25-inch AMOLED, 50MP main camera, a 16MP selfie shooter, 5,000-mAh battery and 256GB of expandable storage. The handset in the demo reportedly ups the ante: a Snapdragon 7-series chip, 512GB of storage and a 50MP front camera, with a curved-edge screen rather than the flat panel on the earlier sheet.
Price is changing too. People who already put down a $100 deposit are reportedly locked in at a $499 final price, but new buyers are told the T1 will cost more — under $1,000, according to company executives. That kind of mid-to-premium jump raises obvious questions about who the phone will compete with, and whether it should be judged as a bold new brand device or a rebranded OEM design.
Where it will be made — and what 'Proudly American' means
A more concrete shift: the T1 will not be mass-made in the United States. The company initially promoted a made-in-America claim when it announced the phone last year, but that language was quietly removed after it became clear large-scale domestic smartphone manufacturing wasn’t feasible. Executives now describe the product as 'Proudly American' with final assembly planned for Florida, while most of the work will happen in a so-called 'favored nation' overseas.
That change has attracted scrutiny. Lawmakers asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company used misleading manufacturing claims to entice customers. For consumers who paid deposits because they believed they were backing a US-built phone, the distinction matters.
Delays, certification and disappearing answers
This is the third public delay for the T1. Initially pegged for an August launch, it slipped to the end of 2025 and now faces another push, with some customer-service staff saying shipments could be pushed into March for field testing and certification. That process is not unique to Trump Mobile: carrier certification and network compatibility testing are standard for any phone sold for use on a major network, especially when the seller operates as a mobile virtual network operator and depends on a host like T-Mobile for connectivity. For context on MVNO relationships and carrier impacts, see recent coverage of T-Mobile customers reporting sudden benefits changes.
Reporters who tried to track down executives got a brief reply and then silence, a pattern that has only increased skepticism. The site continues to accept $100 deposits, and the company is selling refurbished iPhones and Samsung phones in the meantime — items clearly manufactured abroad.
Why skeptics call it vaporware
There are honest technical and supply-chain reasons a new phone can be delayed: sourcing chips, obtaining certifications, quality control and logistics. But several red flags surround the T1 rollout: shifting specs and images, removed US manufacturing claims, executives who intermittently speak and then stop answering questions, and deposit-taking before delivery. That combination is enough to make journalists, consumer advocates and some lawmakers wary.
From a product perspective, the T1 — if it ships with the revised specs — plugs into a crowded middle tier of phones where polished software, camera performance and timely updates matter more than a gold finish. Consumers comparing alternatives may want to look at other recent midrange and upper-midrange launches to judge value and capabilities; for instance, manufacturers are still pushing advanced camera sensors and high-storage models across the Android lineup, as seen with recent global device announcements like the Vivo X300 Ultra and similar hardware moves by competitors Vivo's phone discussions.
For depositors and watchers
If you put money down: keep receipts, check the company sales terms and watch for any formal shipping notices. Regulators will likely keep an eye on claims that stray into deceptive-advertising territory, and lawmakers have already asked for answers. If you were hoping the T1 would be a domestically manufactured alternative to mainstream devices, the company’s change of course is a significant shift in promise.
Either way, the T1 remains a story about more than a single handset. It’s a test of brand power, supply-chain reality and how much consumers will pay for symbolic design over hardware transparency. The phone may still arrive, but whether it will match the marketing that sold those first deposits is a different question — one that will be answered only when the boxes start shipping and reviewers can put a production unit through its paces.