US President Donald Trump’s gold T1 phone appears to share key hardware similarities with HTC’s U24 Pro, a new report discovered.
After comparing scans, components, and internal layouts, iFixit found that the Trump Mobile smartphone closely mirrors HTC’s U24 Pro in both internal layout and hardware. The repair firm even swapped a key component between the two devices, finding a degree of compatibility that suggests a shared underlying platform.
The results provide a technical answer to questions that have followed the phone since launch, particularly regarding its origins and development. The results also highlight a common practice in which brands adapt existing designs rather than build entirely new devices from the ground up.
Moving from suspicion to technical confirmation
The comparison between the Trump T1 and HTC’s U24 Pro did not begin with this week’s teardown. In May, iFixit published an article suggesting that the T1 is similar to the HTC U24 Pro.
The repair firm’s suspicion was further piqued by the marketing change from “Made in America” to “Made with American Values,” and by the fact that the smartphone manufacturing chain in the US hasn’t reached a stage where it could handle from-the-ground-up phone manufacturing.
While the visual comparison plus a report from The Verge matched the HTC U24 Pro’s dimensions and specifications, iFixit couldn’t technically verify that suspicion until a teardown.
To test whether those similarities were more than skin deep, iFixit later obtained both phones and subjected them to CT scans and a full teardown. The firm found nearly identical internal layouts and component placement, and even successfully booted the Trump phone using a motherboard taken from the HTC device.
The two phones share the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB of storage, and much of their internal layout. Differences were largely limited to cosmetic changes such as the gold exterior, a redesigned camera module, flashlight positioning, and a larger battery in the Trump T1. However, the HTC model supports faster charging speeds.
Why the findings matter beyond the phone
The teardown’s significance extends beyond the question of whether the Trump T1 resembles another smartphone. It provides the strongest technical evidence yet in the debate over how the device was developed and whether it met the expectations set by Trump Mobile’s early marketing.
The revelation also highlights a common but often overlooked reality in both the smartphone and PC industries. Many brands rely on existing designs developed by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and make targeted modifications before bringing products to market under a different name, a model the Trump T1 now appears to fit.
While iFixit’s findings are strong indicators, especially the CT scan, they do not establish who ultimately built the phone; they suggest the T1 is based on an existing smartphone platform rather than a newly engineered product. A plausible explanation is that both HTC and Trump Mobile used the same OEM and had similar device specifications.
Also read: The teardown also arrives as Trump continues to shape conversations around technology and trade, particularly through recent efforts to bolster US tech influence across the Asia-Pacific region.
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