Trump Phone Durability Test: T1 Survives, HTC U24 Pro Inside
The Trump phone durability test is out: YouTuber Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything put the gold Trump Mobile T1 through his scratch, bend and teardown routine in a video published October 29, 2026. The phone survived the abuse, but swapping its motherboard with a 2024 HTC U24 Pro showed both phones boot and work in each other’s bodies.
How the Trump Phone Did in the Durability Test
The display picked up scratches at level 6 on the Mohs hardness scale, with deeper grooves at level 7. That is a typical result for a modern smartphone screen. The metal frame held up to a blade, and the phone did not snap or crack when Nelson bent it hard from both directions.
The teardown also showed that the liquid damage indicators inside were still white, even though the unit had been submerged in water before. Nelson said he borrowed this unit from Linus, who had already submerged it in water.
- Screen scratches at level 6, deeper marks at level 7
- Survived the bend test in both directions
- Water damage indicators untripped after earlier submersion
- Motherboards swapped with an HTC U24 Pro, and both phones booted
The Motherboard Swap That Settles the HTC Question
The bigger finding came from inside. Nelson placed the T1 next to an HTC U24 Pro, a Taiwanese-designed phone that launched in 2024, and found the screw positions, motherboard layout, battery placement and even the model number on the daughterboard matched. Outside, the two share the same dimensions, button layout, headphone jack and microSD slot. The visible differences are the gold back cover and a redesigned camera housing.
He then swapped the motherboards between the two phones in both directions. Each board powered up and worked in the other phone’s chassis. Nelson also pointed out that the American flag printed on the back of the T1 has 11 stripes instead of 13.
The video builds on an earlier iFixit teardown carried out with NBC News, which moved the HTC board into the T1 in one direction only. iFixit found the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, with the memory package coming from Micron instead of SK Hynix. The T1 has a slightly larger battery (19.35 Wh versus 17.23 Wh) but charges at up to 30 W, half of the U24 Pro’s 60 W. iFixit gave the T1 a provisional repairability score of 3 out of 10.
What It Means for Buyers
Trump Mobile has marketed the T1 with “Made in the USA” messaging since it was first announced. We already covered how the T1 was revealed as a rebranded HTC smartphone and how it finally launched after a long pre-order phase. The new test shows the hardware is solid for daily use, but that toughness comes from a two-year-old HTC design rather than new American engineering.
For anyone who already owns one, the result is reassuring on durability. For anyone still deciding, the same internals have been on the market since 2024. JerryRigEverything has been busy this season as well: its recent iPhone Duo durability test ended very differently. Trump Mobile has also faced questions over a subscriber data breach.
Sources: JerryRigEverything on YouTube, iFixit, NBC News.
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