USA Made Cell Phones: Explore Smartphones Made in America

The global mobile phone industry is massive and now records over 1.3 billion units in sales per year. Most smartphones in the world are made in China, thanks to economies of scale. Are there any USA-made cell phones in existence today?

We know that a small number of mobile phone brands are of American origin. The most prominent ones are Apple iPhone and Google Pixel. But there are other American phone brands as well, including:

• CAT
• BLU
• NUU Mobile

All of the above brands are American in origin. But are their mobile phones made, produced, or manufactured in America? That is a different question.

USA-made cell phones are an endangered species. Are any cell phones made in the USA anymore?

The distinction between American phone brands and USA-made cell phones

It is important to make the distinction between American phone brands and phones that are manufactured or made in the USA. There are several American phone brands, but not all of them manufacture their phones here in the USA. Most manufacturing happens in faraway China.

For example, Apple is an American company, but its iPhone models are not manufactured in the USA. The same holds for Google Pixel phones. Like Apple, Google handles the design, but the manufacturing happens in China. So, neither Apple nor Google have their cell phones made in the USA.

What of phone manufacturers like CAT, BLU, and NUU Mobile? Like the big two dogs, their phones are not made in America either. BLU does all the designing in their Florida base, but all manufacturing is done in China. CAT phones are made by Bullitt, which has its manufacturing done in China. The same goes for NUU Mobile.

Having made that distinction, let us have a look at the history of cell phone manufacturing in the United States.

The History of USA-made Cell Phones

Once upon a time, tech brands like HP, Compaq, Dell, and Motorola used to have their cell phones manufactured in the USA. If you were looking for American-made cell phones on the 90s and early 2000s, you would find many models under those labels. But that was a different lifetime. All of them, except Motorola, have exited the mobile market. Motorola, once an American company, was acquired by Chinese smartphone company, Lenovo, in 2014, and so is now Chinese.

Today, most Motorola phone models are made in China. The company no longer has any manufacturing facilities in the United States of America.

Are any Cell Phones Made in the USA Anymore?

Let’s cut to the chase. Are there any cell smartphones made in the USA? The simple answer to that is this: there is only one smartphone that is currently made in the USA. Yes, there is only one American-made cell phone brand, and it is not exactly a popular one.

Apple iPhone and Samsung Mobile are two top mobile phone brands in the USA. Are there any iPhones made in the USA? Not at all. Are there any Samsung cell phones made in the USA? None at all. Neither brand produces phones in America. 

Have you heard of Purism before? They are an American company and the manufacturers of the Librem 5 smartphone, which is not made in America. But it has a variant, called Librem 5 USA, and that variant is 100% manufactured in the USA.

The Librem 5 is a USA-made cell phone

The Librem 5 USA is a privacy-focused smartphone that runs an operating system called PureOS, so this is no iPhone or Android device. It also has hardware kill switches that give the user total control of the security of the device. The cameras, microphones, and all wireless connections and transmissions can be shut down with these manual switches. Read more about Librem 5. Following on the heels of the Librem 5 is the Liberty Phone, an upgraded version of the former, produced in Librem’s USA facility. Purism cell phones are the only models being produced in the USA today. 

All other mobile phone manufacturing has shifted offshore – most of it to China, Vietnam, and India. All Apple iPhones, Google Pixel phones, and all the cell phones by other American brands are all manufactured outside of the United States of America. American-made cell phones are almost extinct. The government is working at bringing back electronics fabrication to the country, with some chip factories currently under construction. 

In summary, apart from the two Librem phones, Librem 5 USA and the Liberty Phone, there are no other smartphones that are made in the USA today. American-made cell phones are an endangered species.