{"id":170167,"date":"2025-12-05T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/170167\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:28:07","slug":"trump-mobiles-refurbished-iphones-are-an-unsurprisingly-bad-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/170167\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Mobile\u2019s refurbished iPhones are an unsurprisingly bad deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been well established that the Trump Phone doesn\u2019t exist<\/a>. But that isn\u2019t the only phone Trump Mobile sells. It also offers a range of refurbished Apple and Samsung handsets that you can buy right now. You really shouldn\u2019t though.<\/p>\n

I was relieved reading Allison\u2019s coverage over the last two weeks to discover that not everything about Trump Mobile is a scam. It may have taken her a couple weeks to actually get a SIM card<\/a>, but once it arrived it did work just fine<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s T-Mobile, after all. It made me realize that you could, if you wanted, get Trump Mobile coverage on a Trump Mobile-sold phone right now, so long as you don\u2019t mind that the hardware won\u2019t have \u201cAmerican hands behind every device.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump Mobile\u2019s online store currently sells four phones<\/a>, alongside its $100 deposits for the T1 Phone. You can buy a Samsung Galaxy S23 or S24, or Apple\u2019s iPhone 14 or 15. None of these are the latest models \u2014 the two Samsungs launched in 2023 and 2024 respectively, and the iPhones are even older, from 2022 and 2023. You can also only get the base models of each. And I do mean base \u2014 not only does Trump Mobile not sell any of the Plus, Ultra, Pro, or Pro Max versions of these phones, it doesn\u2019t even sell higher storage SKUs \u2014 it\u2019s 128GB or bust. You can\u2019t even pick which color you buy, so I hope you like black.<\/p>\n

That simplicity makes it pretty easy to check if these phones are a good value or not. Surprise, surprise, they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

That iPhone 14 will set you back $489, with the 15 for $629. Apple itself doesn\u2019t even sell the refurbished iPhone 14 any more, but its 15 is going for $529<\/a> \u2014 $100 cheaper than Trump charges \u2014 and it sells the new 16E for $599<\/a>. Things only get worse if you shop around. Amazon has the two phones for $305<\/a> and $429.99<\/a> respectively, Best Buy from $327<\/a> and $479.97<\/a>, and Back Market for $398<\/a> or $536<\/a> \u2014 and that\u2019s for its most expensive \u201cPremium\u201d tier of device condition. So far I haven\u2019t found anywhere that sells refurbished iPhones for more than Trump Mobile does, and neither could Roman Loyola at Macworld<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company looks a little better for the Galaxy phones, where it at least undercuts Samsung. At $369 for an S23 and $459 for an S24 from Trump Mobile these are markedly cheaper than the iPhones, and better than Samsung\u2019s own steep renewed pricing of $519 and $599<\/a>. Still, look elsewhere and it\u2019s a familiar story, with the older S23 available for $249 on Amazon<\/a>, $249 at Best Buy<\/a>, and $290 at Back Market<\/a> for the best condition available, all cheaper than Trump Mobile.<\/p>\n

Does Trump Mobile give a premium service to match that price? Not obviously. It\u2019s not clear who\u2019s actually refurbishing these phones, nor does the store page make any guarantees to have used official parts in its repairs, though all four refurbished phones are described as having been \u201cbrought to life right here in the USA.\u201d There\u2019s no mention of a warranty, whereas Apple, Samsung, and Back Market all promise a one-year warranty with their refurbished phones.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even some characteristic sloppiness to the product pages, which use the same order interface as the T1 Phone deposits, promising that you can \u201cBe the first to get your iPhone 14 Renewed\u201d (again, this is a three-year-old phone), and that you\u2019ll \u201conly be charged $489.00 today\u201d \u2014 the full price of the phone.<\/p>\n

So no, if you\u2019re impatiently awaiting your T1 Phone 8002, you probably shouldn\u2019t buy a Trump-refurbished iPhone instead. We\u2019ll all just have to hold on a little longer.<\/p>\n

As ever, Trump Mobile did not respond to my request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been well established that the Trump Phone doesn\u2019t exist. But that isn\u2019t the only phone Trump Mobile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[351,356,353,342,111,139,69,2063,7254,135,1560,869,370,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-170167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-iphone","11":"tag-mobile","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-phones","16":"tag-policy","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-report","19":"tag-samsung","20":"tag-tech","21":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}