[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Trump Mobile’s first smartphone, the T1, lagged Google’s Pixel 10a in hands-on testing across major categories including performance, battery life and screen brightness, the tests showed.

Online media outlet Gigazine reported on July 10 that research and development organisation LTT Labs recently published the results of its measurements of the T1’s benchmark, battery and display performance.

The tests were conducted as a comparison of mid-range smartphones priced around $499, with Google’s Pixel 10a as the reference device. Earlier research also raised an analysis that the T1 has virtually the same hardware configuration as the HTC U24 Pro.

The performance gap was clear in benchmarks. On Geekbench 6, the T1’s single-core score was about 68 percent of the Pixel 10a’s, and its multi-core score was about 76 percent.

The graphics performance gap was larger. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test, the T1 scored about half of the Pixel 10a. On AnTuTu, the T1’s CPU performance measured about 70 percent of the Pixel 10a’s and its GPU performance 56 percent. Memory and user experience scores also stayed at 83 percent and 75 percent of the Pixel 10a’s, respectively.

The chipset used in the T1 has not been officially disclosed. However, based on other reviewers’ analyses and results from hardware information apps including AIDA64, AnTuTu and Geekbench 6, it is presumed to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 3.

The HTC U24 Pro also uses the same chipset. Stress tests did not show clear performance degradation or throttling. LTT Labs said this does not necessarily mean it has excellent heat control. Researchers pointed out that “there is no performance to drop in the first place,” underscoring that its baseline performance is not high.

Battery performance also fell behind the Pixel 10a. The T1 has a 5,000 mAh battery, while the Pixel 10a uses a 5,100 mAh battery. The capacity difference was not large, but actual runtime differed by more than 9 hours. Charging speed favoured the T1. Time to full charge was 68 minutes for the T1 and 102 minutes for the Pixel 10a.

The display was cited as the T1’s biggest weakness. The T1’s maximum brightness reached 740 nits in SDR settings, while the Pixel 10a rose to as high as 4,083 nits.

Auto-brightness adjustment was also not smooth. LTT Labs explained that the brightness slider behaved as if it moved only among three steps of 49 percent, 64 percent and 100 percent, and that even in a completely dark environment the brightness did not drop below 49 percent.

Still, an assessment also emerged that the overall product is not difficult to use. LTT Labs said, “It is not all bad, and most functions can be used without major problems.” It said the curved glass recalled Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S9, and assessed the camera specifications as relatively good among phones in this price range.

A clean lineup of default apps was also cited as an advantage. Researchers said, “It was very impressive that there were almost no unnecessary preinstalled apps.” They also gave a positive assessment to the inclusion of a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which has become harder to find in recent smartphones.

The test results showed that despite the brand buzz, the T1 did not demonstrate a clear advantage in hardware competitiveness over rival products in the same price range. Battery life, display brightness and graphics performance directly affect the user experience, and the T1’s product competitiveness is likely to be judged in the future around such baseline performance indicators.