I was holding Trump’s phone

You see a lot of interesting phones when you’re among tech journalists.

I’m thinking of two in particular I knotted last week: one was solid gold, with ornate carvings. It was elaborately decorated, heavy, a true work of art. The other was Trump’s phone.

I know. the Trump phone. Which was announced about a year ago and which shipped to Almost no one. But when you connect with tech enthusiasts from all over the country, you find some rare things. Suffice it to say that someone managed to obtain this incredibly rare device. They weren’t supposed to display it around, but they let me hold it for a few minutes recently.

The Trump phone is fairly light, and carries all the features of a mid-range Android device. It has curved sides reminiscent of Motorola Edge phones from previous years and a plastic back panel. The American flag and Trump Mobile inscription are huge and impossible to miss. I’m sorry to say that the gold color treatment is written to piss you off in certain lighting. It comes with a little user guide printed in the box, which is kind of cool.

This week iFixit confirmed what we all knew deep in our hearts: The Trump phone is just a mid-range HTC phone With golden color treatment. Aside from coming with Truth Social pre-downloaded (you can uninstall it), it looks and feels exactly what I’d expect a phone like this to look like.

As it happened, I met a technical YouTuber known as Technical Guruji that same week He also had a gold phone. But this wasn’t just a gold paint job. It was of pure gold, engraved with the image of the Hindu god Ram and his devotee Hanuman. I can’t say I live a solid gold iPhone lifestyle, but running my fingers over the elaborate engravings it was clear how much painstaking work went into making it.

The gold iPhone I was carrying is one in a series of one. Trump’s phone is one of… some? It seems that only a few reporters and influencers got the phone, which is what happened Charging should start to customers last month. We did not get the phone we pre-ordered Almost exactly a year ago. Neither do most other paying customers. Trump’s phone looks somewhat real, but right now, it’s a little easier to get than a real phone made of solid gold.

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