The place’s the Trump telephone? We’re going to maintain speaking about it each week. We’ve reached out, as normal, to ask concerning the Trump telephone’s whereabouts, and have stopped getting a response. This week, because of a reader tip, we expect we’ve discovered the unique telephone the T1 is predicated on.
A very long time in the past, again when the Trump telephone was however a single, inaccurate render and a contradictory spec sheet, we tried to determine what different telephone it is perhaps based mostly on. Now, eight months, two spec overhauls, and one redesign later, I’ve guess: the HTC U24 Professional.
I didn’t spot this on my own. A reader first tipped me off to the similarities between the U24 Professional and the Trump telephone I revealed a number of weeks in the past, that are quite a few: an analogous angled physique and curved show, a singular entrance sensor array, and broadly related specs, together with oddities like a headphone jack and microSD card help.
Let’s get one factor out the best way on the prime: I’m fairly positive HTC isn’t secretly constructing the Trump telephone. Sohaib Ahmed, the corporate’s international director of PR, advised me as a lot: “HTC doesn’t design or manufacture telephones for third events.” However that doesn’t rule out one other firm taking part in an element in designing or constructing each telephones, and given simply how related they give the impression of being, I believe that’s precisely what occurred.
The U24 Professional is an odd telephone in its personal proper. It launched in 2024 for €549 (round $600 on the time), and was heralded in some corners as a return from the lifeless for HTC, even though it adopted the U23 Professional a 12 months earlier, and a string of smaller releases that focused the Asian market. HTC, as soon as one of many main gamers within the Android telephone trade, had been vastly diminished ever since promoting a big a part of its smartphone enterprise to Google for $1.1 billion in 2017.
Each the T1 Telephone and the U24 Professional share a barely uneven angular body, jutting out into some extent alongside each edge, with a closely curved display on the entrance. I can’t consider, nor discover, one other telephone that’s fairly the identical form — even small particulars just like the positions of the antenna traces across the energy and quantity buttons line up. Much more telling is the set of sensors alongside every telephone’s prime. The U24 Professional splits up its speaker grill, notification LED, and proximity sensor into three, leading to an uncommon design with a protracted bar, a small dot for the LED, after which a second shorter bar, on the level the place the show meets the telephone’s prime. What seems to be like the identical sensor design could be clearly seen on the Trump telephone I used to be proven, although I can’t verify that the sensors themselves are the identical, or that the T1 Telephone may also have a notification LED.
Different particulars are subtler. It’s laborious to inform precisely from the glimpses I acquired of the Trump telephone, however alongside the highest body it definitely seems to be to have each a headphone jack and a microphone in the very same positions as on the HTC machine. Even having a headphone jack within the first place is proof of the telephones’ connection, given how uncommon the characteristic is in fashionable gadgets. The identical could be mentioned for the truth that each telephones embrace a microSD card slot, sharing help for as much as 1TB playing cards on prime of a base 512GB of storage.
Whereas the rear cameras look fully completely different, which appears to scupper my idea, look once more: The U24 Professional’s cameras are break up right into a pair shut collectively, with a 3rd lens decrease down. The brand new Trump telephone units all its cameras in a single mount, however they’re inconsistently spaced, with a bigger hole between the second and third lenses. These cameras could look completely completely different on the floor, however I believe that beneath you’ll discover they’re related. And what we all know of the specs matches too: Trump Cell advised me that its telephone may have 50-megapixel sensors for each the principle and selfie cameras, and my glimpse of its digital camera UI confirmed an ultrawide and a 2x zoom choice — all of which you’ll discover on the U24 Professional.
Assuming that the 2 telephones are primarily the identical, does the U24 Professional inform us any extra about what to anticipate from the T1? It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, matching what I’d been advised a couple of Snapdragon 7-series chip within the Trump telephone. The U24 Professional has a 6.8-inch OLED show, 60W wired charging and even wi-fi charging help, and an IP67 score for mud and water safety. There’s cause to be cautious studying an excessive amount of into the spec sheet, although: The U24 Professional launched with a 4,600mAh battery, smaller than the 5,000mAh capability I’ve been advised will likely be within the Trump telephone. If that spec differs, then different components of the internals might properly too — the larger battery specifically may change the wi-fi charging coils of the HTC telephone.
The U24 Professional launched to middling evaluations, which can not encourage a lot confidence in Trump Cell’s providing. Tech Advisor gave the telephone two and a half stars out of 5, calling it “laborious to advocate over rivals,” whereas Notebookcheck declared it “fashionable and but old-fashioned.” Nonetheless, it fared surprisingly properly in a JerryRigEverything teardown and sturdiness take a look at.
He observed, nonetheless, that this didn’t look like the HTC of outdated, missing the sapphire crystal HTC beforehand used on its shows and optical picture stabilization on the entrance digital camera it as soon as pioneered. The U24 Professional and different HTC telephones launched in the previous couple of years share little constant design language, and ship with near-stock Android software program. Hypothesis has been rife that HTC isn’t in truth manufacturing the telephones internally, however had commissioned an ODM — authentic design producer — to supply the {hardware}. ODMs design and manufacture telephones for different corporations, normally to a set of specs supplied by the consumer-facing manufacturers, and sometimes retain possession of the designs, permitting them to reuse and repurpose them for different purchasers. I requested HTC for clarification, however the firm wouldn’t verify whether or not the U24 Professional was made in-house or contracted out.
It’s definitely attainable that Trump Cell, or its manufacturing companion, is just ripping off the design of a little-known HTC machine. However I feel the more than likely reply here’s a extra mundane one: HTC most likely labored with some unnamed ODM to design and manufacture the U24 Professional, and Trump Cell simply occurred to work with the identical firm. That producer could have both dug out its outdated designs for HTC when growing the T1 Telephone, or maybe gave new life to outdated, unused parts from HTC’s manufacturing run. With out understanding the hypothetical ODM concerned, it’s laborious to say for positive. Trump Cell has beforehand confirmed that it’s working with a companion or companions to fabricate its telephones exterior the US, earlier than their “last meeting” in Miami, however govt Don Hendrickson wouldn’t inform me the identify of its producer or the place it’s based mostly. I reached out to the corporate once more for touch upon this story, and obtained no reply.
So no, I don’t suppose that HTC made the Trump telephone. However it does look seemingly that it’s based mostly, roughly, on one in every of that firm’s telephones. It stays to be seen how the T1 Telephone will differ in its particulars, however the truth that its origins appear so carefully tied to an unpopular midranger from two years in the past doesn’t precisely encourage confidence within the T1 Telephone’s flagship credentials.
Obtained inside data on Trump Cell or the Trump telephone? Attain out securely from a private machine to suggestions@theverge.com, or see our Learn how to Tip Us web page.