“The pro-Trump internet went wild on Wednesday for the Freedom Phone, a $500 smartphone that comes stocked with conservative apps and promises to liberate anyone else who buys it from Silicon Valley censorship. The American flag-branded phone was immediately promoted by a wide range of right-wing figures, including former Trump adviser Roger Stone, Jan. 6 rally organizer Ali Alexander, and pundit Dinesh D’Souza. ‘I’m holding a freaking phone that is not controlled by Apple or Google,’ conservative personality Candace Owens told her fans in an Instagram video. ‘We made the switch immediately.’ Despite being lauded by some of the right-wing media’s leading figures, though, the Freedom Phone’s buyers could be getting less than they expect for its $500 price tag. That’s because the Freedom Phone appears to be merely a more expensive rebranding of a budget Chinese phone available elsewhere for a fraction of the Freedom Phone’s price.”

“The Freedom Phone was created by Erik Finman, the self-proclaimed ‘youngest bitcoin millionaire’ and one of Time Magazine’s ‘Most Influential Teens of 2014.’ In a video announcing the phone, Finman said he was inspired to create the phone after the tech giants’ crackdown on both Donald Trump and conservative social media app Parler in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. ‘Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg censored MLK or Abraham Lincoln,’ Finman said in the video. Freedom Phone’s website is nearly totally devoid of technical information about the device. Finman declares in the promotional video that the Freedom Phone is ‘comparable to the best smartphones on the market’ and ‘truly is the best phone in the world.’ In fact, Freedom Phone appears to be a simple rebranding of a budget phone called the ‘Umidigi A9 Pro,’ made by the Chinese tech company Umidigi. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Finman confirmed that the Freedom Phone was manufactured by Umidigi, but couldn’t say immediately which model it was based on. The Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag would represent a substantial markup on the A9 Pro. That phone is available on Chinese retailer AliExpress for $120 – less than one quarter of the price of a Freedom Phone” – Daily Beast.