Unplugged, the company behind the privacy-focused UP Phone, is set to begin assembling its smartphones in the United States, starting this fall in Nevada. The move comes amid White House efforts to encourage domestic tech manufacturing, following promises from companies like Apple to invest billions in US production.
CEO Joe Weil, who previously worked at Apple, says the US assembly aims to keep the phone’s price under $1,000 despite higher labor costs. Currently manufactured in Indonesia, the UP Phone sells for $989. Unplugged plans to start with assembly domestically and gradually source more components from within the US, using a former refurbishing firm expanded for assembly purposes. Production numbers, partners, and funding remain undisclosed.
Building phones in the US remains uncommon due to high labor costs and most of the supply chain being in Asia. Unplugged hopes to control costs by producing steady, smaller batches rather than yearly mass releases. The upcoming UP Phone, available for preorder and shipping in late September, includes one year of Unplugged’s privacy suite, featuring tracker blocking, a VPN, and encrypted photo storage, before transitioning to a $12.99 monthly subscription.
The device emphasizes privacy with a firewall blocking over 225,000 known data-harvesting servers, UnpluggedOS removing Google services while supporting most Android apps, and system-level sensor controls to restrict microphone, camera, Bluetooth, and other hardware access. The phone also comes preloaded with the Brave browser, enabling private, AI-assisted research directly on the device.
