The gold Trump Mobile T1 phone now carries a $749 price tag where $499 once stood. Trump Mobile quietly changed its website, according to September 10 reports from CNET and Engadget, without announcing the increase or explaining the extra charge. The T1 handset has already traveled from delayed preorders to questions about its manufacturing origins. Now the company is asking another $250 for the device. [1, 2]
Trump Mobile T1 Phone Loses Introductory Price
Trump Mobile raised the advertised price by roughly half. CNET’s Aaron Pruner and Engadget’s Mariella Moon both credit The Verge with first spotting the website change, which moves the gold Android handset above Apple’s iPhone 17e in price. Neither report describes a new hardware version arriving with the increase. The news concerns the cost of buying the T1, and the company has yet to give a reason for changing it. [1, 2]
Executives had left the door open. Earlier this year, Trump Mobile executives told The Verge that $499 was an introductory price and said the handset could eventually cost as much as $999, according to both reports. The new listing follows that warning, although it does not establish when another increase might happen or whether the company will reach that figure. For now, $749 is the reported price; $999 remains a possibility executives previously raised. [1, 2]
CNET sought an explanation from Trump Mobile. A spokesperson had not immediately replied when Pruner published his report. [1]
A Gold Handset With a History
The Trump Mobile T1 phone is a gold-colored Android smartphone sold under the Trump Mobile brand. CNET describes a device with Truth Social installed, an American flag on its casing and an operating system its reviewers consider outdated. The report also says the flag decoration is missing some stripes. Those details distinguish the product’s presentation, but the hardware underneath has drawn comparisons with a much less politically branded phone. [1]
HTC’s U24 Pro is the comparison. After examining the T1, CNET concluded that it was nearly identical to the Taiwanese company’s handset, which had reached the market two years earlier and was available for less than $600 at retailers including Walmart and Amazon. Engadget likewise describes the T1 as essentially a reskinned HTC phone (an existing handset given a different exterior or branding), citing iFixit’s teardown. Neither report presents the September price change as the launch of a replacement model. The HTC connection instead puts an older device at the center of the story, just as Trump Mobile increases the amount it asks customers to pay. [1, 2]
CNET calls the underlying handset a midrange model. Its report does not provide a complete specification table or identify an Android version number, so neither detail can establish a fresh upgrade here. What changed in September was the advertised price. The product’s longer history explains why that change attracts attention beyond the extra charge itself. [1]
Shipping Followed Almost a Year of Delays
Trump Mobile began sending the T1 to members of the media in May after an almost year-long delay, CNET reports, and its own reviewers received a handset to examine. Some customers received phones too. Those early buyers had paid a $100 preorder deposit. The account establishes that actual devices reached reviewers and at least some purchasers, rather than remaining solely images and promises on a product page. [1]
CNET’s May shipment account does not say that Trump Mobile cleared every outstanding preorder or establish a current delivery window for someone ordering at the higher September price. Some deliveries do not establish universal availability. The report also does not explain how the new listing affects any customer who previously paid a deposit. The advertised purchase price and the handling of an existing reservation remain separate questions, and the supplied reporting resolves only the former. [1]
Reviewers finally had hardware to inspect. CNET’s examination reinforced an earlier finding from iFixit, bringing scrutiny back to an especially prominent part of the T1’s original sales pitch: where the phone came from. For a product initially advertised as American-made, the arrival of review units opened a question that a shipping confirmation alone could not settle. [1, 2]
The American Manufacturing Claim Changed
Trump Mobile originally advertised the handset as made in the United States. CNET says its labeling later changed to “assembled in the USA”. CNET’s reviewers concluded that the phone likely originated in Guangdong, China, and reported that their examination supported what iFixit had learned before them. Engadget also cites iFixit’s teardown when challenging the original American manufacturing claim. These are findings attributed to the reviewers, distinct from the company’s marketing language. [1, 2]
CNET retains an important qualifier: likely. Its account points to Guangdong as the manufacturing location, but the supplied material does not include factory records or a direct statement from a manufacturer confirming that origin. The precise manufacturing location is not independently verified here. The wording about US assembly comes from the product’s labeling, as reported by CNET; it does not establish where each component or the underlying handset was made. [1]
HTC supplies the closest named hardware comparison in both reports, while Trump Mobile supplies the branding and the revised price. A near-identical handset does not, by itself, document every step in a supply chain (the route from manufacturing to sale). CNET’s qualified finding allows the article to describe the evidence without turning a probable production location into a confirmed factory address. [1, 2]
Memory Costs Leave an Unanswered Question
CNET and Engadget place the increase against a wider squeeze on RAM (working memory) supplies, which their reports connect to the growth of AI infrastructure and rising electronics prices. Engadget says Apple recently added $100 to older iPhone prices after earlier increases across iPads, MacBooks and Mac Studio computers. Both publications discuss that backdrop, but Trump Mobile has not linked its own increase to memory costs. Treating the shortage as the confirmed cause would go beyond their reporting. [1, 2]
Apple’s pricing also supplies a contrast. CNET places the T1 news just after Apple’s September event and the introduction of the $1,999 iPhone Duo, a device whose earlier pricing expectations PerEXP Teamworks covered in its report on Gurman’s $2,000 foldable iPhone forecast. The T1 sits well below that foldable’s reported starting price, but both supplied reports say it now costs more than the iPhone 17e. [1, 2]
The Trump Mobile T1 phone now faces those comparisons at $749. Trump Mobile’s earlier warning about a possible $999 price leaves room for another increase, without providing a timetable or commitment. The immediate unanswered question is simpler: what prompted the company to add $250 this time? CNET asked for comment. A response explaining the increase had not arrived when its report appeared. [1, 2]
- ONLINE NEWS Pruner, A. (2026, September 10). You can now buy the Trump phone for $250 more than originally priced. CNET. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Moon, M. (2026, September 10). Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone now costs $250 more. Engadget. [Article Link]
