Patrick Holland, the managing editor for CNET, has given a scathing review of Trump Mobile’s new golden phone.

In June 2025, the Trump Organization revealed that Trump Mobile would launch the golden Android phone, named the T1 Phone.

This phone, which is available only in gold, will also have 256 gigabytes of storage, an American flag and “T1” engraved on it.

Even though it was slated for release in either August or September 2025, it has not been released to the public – only a few tech writers have been given test models.

The preorder terms, updated earlier this month, state that there is no guarantee the T1 will ever be released.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Holland to share his review of the golden phone.

“Patrick, you’ve looked at a lot of phones in your work, and you spent a whole day using this one before giving it to a colleague for further testing,” Keilar said.

“What were your immediate impressions of it?” she then asked Holland. “Would you recommend it?”

“Yeah, I think first, it looks nothing like the original image that we saw about a year ago, which kind of looked like an altered iPhone 16 Pro,” he replied. “Next, the gold color. In real life, it kind of varies depending on what lighting you’re in. Sometimes it looks like those gold coins that Scrooge McDuck would jump into for DuckTales. Other times, it’s got a mustard vibe to it, and yet other times it kind of looks like a urine sample.”

“But my hesitation is – I would not recommend it,” he added. “Not because of that, but largely because we just don’t know certain things about it.”

“We don’t know what the processor is in the phone,” Holland stated. “We don’t know what the software and security updates will be. For example, companies like Samsung or Google will commit to seven years. So if you buy a phone, you’ll know you have until 2033 to use it.

“And that makes me wonder if the last big worry is if this phone will actually ship,” he shared, noting the ongoing delays the device is facing. “Well, a couple of us in the media do have it.”

“I can’t find many cases of actual customers who put their money down to order the phone,” he concluded.