Is it a sports car? Is it a Blackberry? Maybe, it’s Vertu’s Ferrari-inspired new luxury phone.

The Constellation Quest Ferrari by Vertu derives its inspiration from the sharp curves of the Italian sports car manufacturer’s ‘458 Italia’ car. And yes, it comes with the iconic Ferrari logo too, the prancing horse. Ferrari cars come with custom-made plush leather interiors. Vertu’s Constellation Quest Ferrari doesn’t fall short in that category either: the front portion of the handset has leather exteriors with the Cavellino Rampante logo embossed on it. And it needn’t be said that the leather is the same hand-made Italian calf ones used by Ferrari in its cars.

The luxury smartphone is made from polished stainless steel which makes it sturdy. Vertu has even included a titanium battery cover for the handset: Super cool, isn’t it?   To add to it, polished sapphire crystal and polished black ceramic are also used in crafting the handset. But the speedometer and tachometer are missing!

Aha! Vertu has found an answer for that too. The Constellation Quest Ferrari, which is handmade by a single craftsman, has a new analogue clock which is inspired by the rev-counter on the ‘458 Italia’. This is the second time that Vertu has collaborated with Ferrari in bringing out a luxury handset. Their first courtship resulted in the Ascent Ferrari GT, a much sexier looking outcome than Blackberry and Porsche had with their ugly P’9981 offspring.  We can only image what the price of this one will ring in at.

[ source ]

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With the Lunar New Year in just a couple of short weeks, Vertu has announced three new luxury handsets that all boast some of kind of dragon-themed design. As is the norm with Vertu, they’ve loaded these phones with high-end materials. There’s the gold and diamond model, as well as the stainless steel and emerald version, plus the one with black stainless steel and ruby. The four-claw dragon on the battery cover is hand-engraved.

Since these are Vertu phones, the actual specs don’t really matter all that much. Rumor has it that they haven’t gone ahead and shifted over to WP7 for this latest generation, sticking to Symbian which they have had for some time already. These are limited edition and are expected to sell for over $26,000 US. Find them in Singapore, if you happen to be out that way and have way too much money to spend.

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Yet there seems to be a market out there for people who buy phones that cost over $6000, like those made by Vertu. The ridiculous part of this is that they aren’t even ‘smartphones’, they are just basic phones that look sorta pretty. But most of the time they are just a little bit nicer than average, and often tacky.

What could be worse than spending over $6000 on a ‘dumb’ phone? Perhaps spending $190 for the USB data cable that connects the phone to the PC.  That’s right, the data cable actually costs $190.

I can at least sort of (I guess) understand that the reason a consumer would pay so much is that its a trendy, fashionable item, but what could possibly make a USB cable trendy enough to pay that kind of dough?

It turns out that Nokia owns Vertu, and even they must question the worth of such a brand since they are looking to dump the company on to some unsuspecting buyer, probably in Korea. For anyone out there thats looking to throw away money, I have an idea for you. Why don’t you buy a normal phone that will run 10x better than your Vertu, and then you can build your karma with the leftover money and give someone in need access to clean water.

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The name of the designer might not ring a bell (it didn’t for me), but this is the same guy who created the Jawbone Bluetooth headset for Aliph. As far as headsets go, that’s one of the best looking. The +YvesBehar phone, though, is of a different league altogether. If you opt for the gold version, it’s going to sell for 42,000 Euro ($58,740)… about the same you’d pay for a pretty nice luxury car.

Partly following in the footsteps of Vertu and Gresso, the +YvesBehar phone (yes, the pretentious use of a + symbol is really a part of the official name) doesn’t really do anything special. It’ll take calls and calculate the tip you leave when you dine on foie gras and caviar. The 2-inch TFT isn’t exactly exciting, but the watch-like design of the keypad is an interesting touch.

Luxury, I suppose, doesn’t really mean to make sense. You can’t really justify it. If you do want to save some cash on the +YvesBehar phone (which was actually designed for Æsir of Copenhagen), you can opt for the 7,250 Euro ($10,140) stainless steel version, but that’s like getting an entry-level Benz or the Baby Bentley: what’s the point?

[GizMag]

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Vertu Signature Collection premium phones start at $216,000 USD

Usually when it comes to buying the newest and hottest cell phone, I take a look at the spec sheet to see how they compare to other phones I’ve already seen. I may mull over the user interface and form factor, considering how the handset can fit into my lifestyle.  The Vertu line from Nokia is just an entirely different ball game.

The brand has been around for a while, but it has fallen out of the limelight for quite some time.  Nokia wants to remind us that Vertu is still very much alive and they’re still pumping out new phones. In fact, the most exclusive Signature collection has been populated with four new hyper-expensive offerings.

Representing each of the four seasons, these Vertu Signature collection premium phones come with some delicate hand-crafting and the “latest technology,” but you’re really buying into the exclusivity. From what I can see, there’s no touchscreen, no smartphone features, no QWERTY keyboard, or any of that jazz.

We’ve seen some Vertu phones for $5,000 or more, but this is the hyper-exclusive Signature collection. Each phone will put you back 20 million Yen; that works out to $216,600 in the green stuff. Yowza! Choose from the Vertu Daigo, Nishiki Akira, Kikusui, and Southern handsets.

Vertu Signature Collection Photo Gallery

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Unlike most other Vertu phones, however, the Constellation Ayxta is not a candybar. Instead, it takes on the familiar clamshell “flip phone” form factor, but that doesn’t mean that Vertu has cheaped out on the niceties. It’s just as “bling” as any other Vertu made by Nokia.

On the spec sheet, you find a 3 megapixel camera, microSd expansion slot, microUSB port, Zero 7 pre-installed ringtones, and the well-known Vertu concierge service.

Depending on your preferred level of eye candy, you can expect to pay between 4,900 and 6,500 Euro. That’s between $7,193 and $9,543 US dollars based on today’s exchange rate. That new iPhone doesn’t sound all that expensive anymore, now does it…

Source: Intomobile

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