Mobiado challenges Vertu for luxury cellphone crown

Mobiado, a relative newcomer to the cellphone industry, today provided an early glimpse of its flagship luxury handset. Named simply the Luminoso, the bar-shaped phone presents one of the first major challenges to Nokia's exotic Vertu through its construction. The shell is made of a specially-treated aluminum, Mobiado says: an advanced hard anodizing process results in a shell twice as thick and thus much tougher than most any metal frame. In turn, the translucent keypad buttons are made of more durable sapphire crystals and are lit from above and below to produce a characteristic effect during nighttime use. A diamond-like coating on the main screen is said to prevent cracks and scratches.

Technical details match the phone's appearance, according to Mobiado. The tri-band GSM and WCDMA phone shares many features of higher-end phones in its form factor and can snap 2-megapixel photos, play back AAC and MP3 music stored on microSD up to 2GB in size, and connect to mobile broadband services through EDGE. Mobiado asks buyers to contact the company individually for pricing details, but says that the phone will be ready for a January 15th debut. Click through for a photo of the Luminoso's lighting effect. [Via SlashPhone]