- Trump Mobile announces it’s shipping phones this week
- A new video gives a glimpse of the retro-looking device
- It’ll ship with its own clear case
The Trump Mobile T1 Gold phone will arrive in consumers’ hands this week. That’s right, the long-promised yet never-delivered gold Android handset, prominently featuring an American Flag and the Trump name is a real product, and now the company is promising, in a Facebook post, delivery to customers who started pre-ordering almost a year ago.
The actual wording on the post was a bit less tempered: “‘Phones start shipping this week!!!’
The news comes just a day after International Business Times UK, discovered some new, dicey language on Trump Mobile’s Terms of Service, which appeared to indicate that there might not even be a product. As stated in the ToS:
A deposit on the phone “is not a purchase, does not constitute acceptance of an order, does not create a contract for sale, does not transfer ownership or title interest, does not allocate or reserve specific inventory, and does not guarantee that a device will be produced or made available for purchase.”
That, though, turns out to be just some cover-the-bases language from Trump Mobile lawyers. If, for some reason, the T1 Gold never shipped, Trump Mobile would not be held liable. Of course, that wouldn’t protect the cellular upstart from angry customers.
It’s real and they are pumped
Now, though, perhaps those who paid a $100 deposit for the aurum-hued device are smiling. Their long-awaited handset, which will run on Trump Mobile’s MVNO, “has arrived!!” according to the Facebook post.
Assuming that Trump Mobile delivers (a sizable assumption, to be sure), it’s been quite a journey for the T1, which started out almost a year ago with a different look and the promise that it would be made in America. Trump Mobile, however, quickly realized the realities or limits of American mobile technology manufacturing, and updated the site to say that the Android phone would be “American Proud Design.”
In April of this year, the site quietly unveiled a new Trump Mobile T1 Gold design. Gone was the iPhone-aping look and feel, replaced with an aesthetic that would have been right at home in 2012.
Even today, Trump Mobile remains short (at least on the surface) on specifics. Here’s how it lists the specs on the main pages:
- Model: T1 Phone (gold version)
- 6.78-inch AMOLED screen
- 120 Hz refresh rate
- 50 MP Main + 8MP Wide + 50MP (2X Tele) Camera + 50MP Front Camera
- 5000 mAh battery/30W quick charge
- Fingerprint sensor and AI Face Unlock
- Snapdragon® Mobile Platform
- Android Operating System
Details, though, reveal that it’s inexplicably an Android 15 phone running a last-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 7. It also still has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which, depending on your perspective, may or may not be one of the few positive specs on offer.
It’s remarkable that, given all this time, Trump Mobile still can’t deliver a fully modern handset. Of course, that’s not why thousands plunked down a deposit for the $499 phone. They’re buying the Trump name and other intangibles. As the video notes, the phone is “designed for performance, reliability, and real American value.” And even though this supposedly has no affiliation with the US’s 47th president, it does feature his favorite material (gold), and the mobile plan on offer is called “47”.
At least the Facebook video gives us our first, clear, and full look at the phone. We can see details like the SIM slot (we’re betting eSIM support is not included), USB-C port, speakers, and the Trump Mobile Camera bump.
This is, by the way, one of the rare new phones to still ship with a charging brick (and cable, of course), and even its own clear case. Score a few points for actual value.
It’s Wednesday, May 13, as I write this, which gives Trump Mobile a few days to deliver on its promise — and who knows, some customers may have the phones right now.
Let us know in the comments if you got yours and, if so, describe the unboxing and early experiences. We’re all ears.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
